Silicone Smokescreen

[Guest guest]

San Diego Business Journal, August 18, 1998"The Silicone Smokescreen"The Silicone Smokescreen

The purpose of law

is to prevent the strong from always having their way.

Ovid, 43 BC -- 18 AD

Ovid must be spinning in his grave!

For 35 years, silicone manufacturers have been selling harmful breast

implants -- products the FDA never approved. Following in the footsteps of their cousins --The Tobacco Barons -- the

mighty Dows and other silicone manufacturers have run roughshod over the

legal system. They followed the winning formula: Bury all incriminating

evidence. Deny its existence. Make the victims prove your product is not

safe. Even then, deny it. Put profit over human life. Deny it. Create an

incestuous relationship with the AMA and the FDA. Deny it. Hire expensive

PR firms to sway public opinion. Purchase favorable media with

mega-advertising dollars. Deny it. Sell sex. Above all, create a "smokescreen" to confuse and confound the issue and

protect your bottom line. Repeatedly claim that "there is no scientific

proof that smoking (or silicone) Œcauses¹ disease.² It¹s easy. Human beings make lousy lab rats. Tobacco has honed this

formula beautifully for well over 50 profit-filled years. We¹ve really

³come a long way, baby.²

However, it wasn¹t until late 1996 (Science, 10/18/96) after thousands of

studies and tens of millions of smoking-related deaths, that medical

science was able to identify the genetic "missing link" between smoking

and lung cancer. Finally, proof. By then was there any doubt? Already, a

half a million Americans were dying annually from smoking related

diseases. ³Tobacco science² had proven what everyone has known for

decades.

Since the 60¹s, the silicone manufacturers, claiming no culpability, out

of court and out of the public eye, settled thousands of cases of implant

problems with ³gag² orders which kept their "dirty little secrets" hidden.

When one brave woman, nn Hopkins refused to be silenced and took her

case to jury, former San Diegan Dan Bolton dropped a bombshell on the jury

and produced vast amounts of damning evidence from Dow¹s own files.

Included were concealed studies showing how for years, Dow Corning knew,

denied and hid the serious dangers. Dow lost all appeals, and the Supreme

Court eventually upheld the verdict of fraud.

One of the studies that surfaced was the Dow sponsored, 1975 ACTA from

Sweden which indicated that silicone crosses the placental barrier. As far

reaching as this fact is, to date, physicians nationwide continue to

assure implanted women that it is perfectly safe to carry and nurse

babies. Not one OB/GYN can tell me on what scientific studies these

assurances are based. None exists.

Retired professor of Health Education, Henrietta Farber is appalled at the

lack of information given women today as to the true risks of implants. A

survivor of double mastectomies and a series of disastrous implant

surgeries, she is shocked that Dr. Anne Wallace, UCSD Plastic Surgeon,

still quotes small, manufacturer financed studies as ³proof² of implant

safety. ³Similar studies, could not have shown any correlation between

smoking and cancer. Dr. Wallace ignores newer studies indicating that 34%

of post mastectomy patients required additional surgery within the first

five years after implantation.² Dr. Wallace, whose recent lecture aired on

UCSD-TV, described saline implants as ³bags of water,² never mentioning

the fungus, mold and bacterial infections known to flourish in these

degradable silicone envelopes. Mrs. Farber added, ³Over 33,000 women have

filed complaints of serious complications to the FDA about their saline

implants. People believe incorrectly that they have been approved by the

FDA for safety.²

However, on KNSD-TV, ³Dirty Doctor² Dean Edell, describes saline

implants as ³perfectly safe, perfectly fine.² He has also been heard

proclaiming that he hopes that ³implanted women never get a penny² from

the makers of their defective products. Oh yes, the pennies. Dow spent $191 million defending itself in the three years prior to

declaring bankruptcy in 1992 and crashing the huge class action suit.

Meanwhile, while safely in ³bankruptcy protection² Dow Corning enjoyed

profits of $61 million in 1996, while Papa Dow Chemical earned $452

million in the first quarter of 1997. Concurrently, here in San Diego County, there are estimated hundreds of

women with no funds to have their disintegrating and ruptured implants

removed. Many are too ill with multiple autoimmune diseases to care for

themselves and their families.

Brilliant as they were, The Dows made some early serious calculation

errors as to ³cost benefit.² Using strategy modeled after the exploding

Pinto gas tanks, as the numbers of ruptured implants surfaced, they hid

the details and continued to claim falsified rupture figures of only 1-5%.

Well-respected UCSD Radiologist, Dr. Middleton, presented details

of research done on 1,200 women to the Annual Meeting of the Radiological

Society of North America in November, 1995. He explained that in these

studies on women implanted between 10 and 12 years, "The rupture rate for

non-polyurethane-coated implants was 31%, compared to 91% for

polyurethane-coated implants." The latter were taken off the market in

1991 after it was discovered that the polyurethane breaks down to TDA, a

known carcinogen. I¹ve heard of no women, however, who received a ³recall

notice.²

The infamous class action suits have been brilliant stalling devices to

keep the money where the manufacturers want it. Mentor Corporation of

Santa Barbara, threatening bankruptcy, forced all recipients to settle

with a ³take it or leave it² offer. Their 1996 earnings were $23.8

million.

One of their customers, a 43 year old San Diegan woman who had had 3 sets

of failed implants, Mentor¹s being one, has now reluctantly been forced

into receiving public assistance. She has had 12 implant related

surgeries, has accumulated over $120,000 in medical bills, and lives in

constant pain. Her total settlement from Mentor -- $379.90.

³It is unbelievable to me, that women dying, and those who will suffer

agonizing pain for the remainder of their lives are barred from seeking

legal recourse through our court system.² For this reason, explains Joan

Huffman, Executive Director of La Jolla based Research Update, they have

sponsored Assembly Bill 1609, which recently received an affirmative vote

from the Senate Judiciary Committee. ³Women harmed by breast implants

deserve access to the court system.²

³Silicone Science² like ³Tobacco Science² can rage in controversy for

decades. And just like tobacco, the evidence is the victims and their

failed health. They know now what science may not figure out (or admit to)

for years. With insurers such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield denying benefits

to ³women with a history of implants,² this is a public health catastrophe

in the making. And the tax payer, as always, will have to pick up the tab.

May Ovid rest in peace.

Ilena Rosenthal is Director of the 35 year old Humantics Foundation for

Women. She assists thousands worldwide through her Internet group,

alt.support.breast-implant. She is the author of Breast Implants: The

Myths, The Facts the Women and speaks locally and nationally on this

topic. She can be reached at 858/270-0680 or ilena@....