Fw: Response to NY Times comments on silicone by Akst ...

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From Ilena....with many thanks!

Patty

----- Original Message ----- oped@...

Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 4:51 PM

Subject: Response to NY Times comments on silicone by Akst ...

This is in response to a quote from Mr. Akst’s article, The Lawyers Are Lurking Over S.U.V.'s in today’s New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/business/yourmoney/05CONT.html?ex=1042434000 & en=f986881158d039fe & ei=5062 & partner=GOOGLE

Excerpt:

“In the case of silicone breast implants, for instance, the science is quite definitive: these implants do not cause any major diseases. Yet that made no difference in the lawsuits, which took off on the wings of sympathetic female plaintiffs, a product fallen into social disrepute and a highly evolved, well-financed plaintiffs' bar.”

Opinion by Ilena Rosenthal

To the New York Times

Akst is usually an excellent researcher, with a deep understanding of the power of propaganda. However, he made a mammoth error in drawing a “definitive” conclusion about the safety of a raging medical controversy with billions of silicone dollars at stake.

What is definitive:

• Well over 200,000 women have filed reports of serious adverse complications for faulty breasts implants with the FDA.

• A recent FDA study revealed 69% of women with silicone gel implants had at least one rupture within just the first 17 years, frequently resulting in multiple invasive surgeries, infections, necrosis etc. These women are left with scars and frequently illness, rather than the “lifetime” implant they were sold.

• National Cancer Institute researchers compared the risks for implant patients with the general population and found that "the implant patients were two to three times more likely to develop stomach cancer, leukemia, and cancers of the cervix, vulva and brain.” Comparing death certificates of implanted women to a plastic surgery control group revealed even more troubling data. There were 11 cases of brain tumors of implanted women, compared to one case in the controls.

Mr. Akst can also be assured that victims of breast implants are treated far from “sympathetically ” in the courtrooms and in the media. An excellent illustration was his disinformative comments. Deeper research will reveal brilliance from the Dows in legal maneuvering, while hundreds of thousands of ill and injured women go uncompensated to date for damages from their failed implants.

Ilena Rosenthal

Director, Humantics Foundation

1380 Garnet Ave. E444

San Diego, CA 92109

858/270-0680

ilena2000@...

http://www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

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