Fw: Dow CEO's scheduled speech at Lehigh dinner raises ire ~ TheMorning Call

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

<Recipient List Suppressed:;>

Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 10:46 AM

Subject: Dow CEO's scheduled speech at Lehigh dinner raises ire ~ TheMorning

Call

~~~ thanks Kathy Nye for sending this ... and to all who wrote this paper.

Seems like there is even more work to do there. ~~~

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b4_4crisismar08.story?coll=all%2Dnewsloc

al%

2Dhed CEO's scheduled speech at Lehigh dinner raises ire In light of

breast implant lawsuits against Dow Corning, some women say his appearance

is inappropriate. By Kathy Lauer- Of The Morning Call March 8,

2002 The chief executive officer of Dow Corning Corp., the company that

once made silicone breast implants, will speak today at a Lehigh University

dinner, much to the ire of several women who developed health problems

related to the implants. will discuss the latest

developments in the breast implant lawsuits, as well as lessons learned by

a corporation faced with some of the most massive civil litigation in

American history, at Lehigh's Center for Crisis Public Relations and

Litigation Studies' $150-a-plate dinner at the Saucon Valley Country Club.

''I am just outraged,'' said Ilena Rosenthal, director of the Humantics

Foundation, a national support group for women who have had implants. ''To

have Dow Corning teach crisis management is like Enron teaching a course on

401(k)s.'' But center Director Carol Gorney, who received numerous e-mails

complaining about the choice of speaker, said the protesters misunderstand

the reason is talking. ''We want to shed light on what Dow

could've done differently,'' said Gorney. ''This is a way to get a dialogue

going. I didn't anticipate everyone getting bent out of shape.'' Gorney

said the center was established last year to support research about crises

involving big business, such as class-action lawsuits and product recalls,

and how companies can deal with them. ''Dow has gone through one of the

most major lawsuits ever,'' she said. ''It's historic and there are lessons

to be learned from it about what not to do and what to do.'' Dow spokesman

Wiggins said the company has addressed the concerns of the women over

the last seven years and is very sensitive to the issue. Dow worked with

the Tort Claimants Committee, which represents some of the women who had

the implants and other product liability claims, to reorganize the company

after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Of the 112,774 women with

domestic silicone implants who voted, 95.3 percent approved of the

reorganization plan, according to Dow. ''This speaks volumes for what we

have accomplished,'' Wiggins said. But Kathleen Nye, of Sinking Spring,

Berks County, called the bankruptcy, filed in 1995, a stall tactic to get

out of litigation and avoid paying settlements in the lawsuits. ''To have

this man from Dow talk about crisis management is just unbelievable,'' said

Nye. ''Dow is a role model for stall tactics.'' Nye, who got implants

after a double mastectomy in 1968, said she has gone through three decades

of illness caused by the implants. After several replacements, necrosis

and later cancer, she had the implants removed and now wears a prosthesis.

''It looks like a crater but I don't care,'' she said. ''I'm just glad to

have them gone.'' Nye was part of the class-action suit filed after the

Federal Drug Administration pulled the implants off the market in 1992.

Now on disability, she has never received compensation from the lawsuit,

nor have any other women, even though there is a settlement fund. Gorney

admitted the issue is emotional and said some of that emotion has spilled

over into the courtroom. ''The whole issue is oversimplified,'' Gorney

said. ''It's a very complicated medical, scientific and legal issue. It

can't be reduced to a sound bite. These women are being very vindictive

personally because wasn't the CEO when the silicon breast implants

were made and sold.'' She said some of the center's goals are to research

the way the media covers litigation and look at the impact of lawsuits on

public policy. ''Litigation has become big business and that's one of the

ramifications of both asbestos and breast-implant lawsuits,'' Gorney said.

In addition to research, Gorney said the center will provide consulting as

well as workshops and seminars conducted by national experts.

<mailto:kathy.lauer@... " >kathy.lauer@... 610-861-3627

Copyright © 2002, <http://www.mcall.com/> The Morning Call