Life insurers entitled to DNA results

THOSE who send their DNA to be analysed cheaply overseas are obliged to share their results with life insurers and risk losing control of their most sensitive information.

A genetic counsellor, researcher and oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Gillian Mitchell, said one risk was offering the ''mine of information'' contained in our DNA to companies identified only online.

Fairfax Media reported on Monday that 180,000 people had sent their blood or saliva to be analysed by 23andMe, a company that assessed health risks and genealogy. The service cost $99, and similar kits from other companies were offered online from $300.

Dr Mitchell contrasted this service with more definitive tests available for breast cancer, for instance, where ''you take the DNA and look at every single bit of that gene to see whether it is normal or abnormal''.

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In the tests offered online, she said ''you are looking broadly across the genetic make-up trying to see subtle areas of difference'', then making some predictions based on those.

''Some of these companies can give different answers,'' Dr Mitchell said. ''It is not to say that one is definitely right and one is definitely wrong. It is just the limits of our understanding''.

The results are also of interest to life insurers setting premiums, and must be disclosed as part of a customer's reporting obligations under Australian law.

Health insurance is not affected as companies cannot discriminate based on an individual's risk factors.

The Financial Services Council, which has 24 members accounting for more than 99 per cent of life insurance premiums, has guidelines on genetic testing.

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Life insurers entitled to DNA results