Fw: Silicone Wars ~ Ides of March, 1999 (Re-post)

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From: " Ilena Rose " <ilena@...>

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Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 2:52 AM

Subject: Silicone Wars ~ Ides of March, 1999 (Re-post)

> From: hecate1 <hecate1@...>

>

> Subject: Re: ~ Silicone Wars ~ Ides of March, 1999 (CORRECTED COPY)

>

> So timely to repeat this.

>

>

>

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>

> Silicone Wars ~ Ides of March, 1999

>

> Beware The Ides of March.

>

> This historical date of classic betrayal and traitorism ~ March 15th ~

> appears to be living up to it's reputation. Caeser and Brutus move over.

> Here come The Dows!

>

> On this date, Dow Corning's bankruptcy division, in yet another public

> relations blitz regarding their previously profitable breast implant

> division, will begin mailing a couple hundred thousand implant recipients

a

> settlement offer for their vote.

>

> They will continue their very expensive PR campaign to make the forgiving

> public believe that there is zilch ~ zero ~ nada ~ none ~ no evidence

> whatsoever ~ that their previous cash cow of silicone, causes harm. They

> will hit the media through their intricate and expansive network with

" Poor

> Dow " and " Generous Dow " articles. They won't reveal however, that Baby Dow

> Corning has earned over $200 million in profit each and every year of

their

> drawn out bankruptcy. Bankruptcy has indeed served them well.

>

> Nor will they remind the public that Papa Dow Chemical recently lost $4

> million in Reno and an as yet unknown amount in a class action suit in

> Louisiana they have managed to stall. They are guilty of not only

> manufacturing, but for years, concealing the known dangers and risks of

> breast implants. Mighty Dow, in spite of the Nevada verdict Halloween,

> 1995, is still appealing at the federal level. They have lost all state

> appeals but with clever legal strategies and stonewalling, that four

> million dollars is still in the coffers of Dow, and the very ill

plaintiff,

> Charlotte Mahlum, is left broke with a debilitating disease similar to

> Multple Sclerosis.

>

> They will fail to mention, that although marketed as " lasting a lifetime, "

> recent studies, including one in the prestigious British Lancet

(11/22/97),

> report a rupture rate up to 95% over 20 years. Nor will the press releases

> mention hidden studies done by Dow as early in the 50's and 60's whose

> results were buried for years. They did not want their customers to know

> that silicone migrated throughout the body and crossed the placental

> barrier. They exclude the fact that implants were once designed as a " drug

> delivery system, " or that cockroaches dropped dead from the silicone

fluid.

>

> They will try to convince you, that it is out of their generosity, not

> scientific evidence, that they are paying out $3.2 billion. They prefer to

> be seen as the benevolent, unfairly maligned corporation, who, with no

> fault of their own, offer this money out of pure concern for fairness.

>

> They will utilize their long running campaign of defaming all doctors who

> dare to report their findings on the damage to women's bodies and immune

> systems by calling them " junk scientists. " They will imply that hundreds

of

> thousands of implanted women are faking serious autoimmune symptoms and

> removing their ruptured implants at the whim of plantiff attorneys.

> Preposterous.

>

> Rarely admitted is the fact that no breast implant has ever been approved

> by the FDA for safety. Or why, as of 9/10/98, 127,500 women with silicone

> gel implants and an additional 49,661 with saline filled implants had

> reported serious adverse reactions to the FDA.

>

> In 1995, my phone started ringing with women sharing their implant

stories

> and I began my internet newsgroup and email list. The horrors continue to

> unfold today as hundreds more ill women come forward every month. Women

> literally and figuratively disintegrating ~ at least one whose tortured

> chest is being held together by mesh. Silicone in their brains, their

> uteri, their livers, their spinal fluid, their children. The manufacturers

> have engaged implanted women as distractors causing confusion and paranoia

> throughout the support system, knowing that dividing the injured women

> disempowers them. It's as if Brutus himself taught them well to spread

> rumors like viruses.

>

> What about the women?

>

> With the pittance offered the majority of them, will they even be able to

> afford to remove their ruptured or disintegrating implants?

>

> And if they vote " no, " will a better offer ever come their way?

>

> Who will cover their mounting medical bills as their immune systems break

> down from chemicals and known carcinogens like silica, toluene, and

> platinum? Health insurers are already routinely refusing coverage for

> implanted women.

>

> The Silicone Issue is the slippery slope of Big Bu$ine$$. It brings

> attention to other dangerous devices and drugs, other toxins whose real

> dangers are still being minimized.

>

> If the wealthy silicone manufacturers don't take real responsibility for

> their failed products, this is a public health catastrophe in the making.

>

>

>

>

> Ilena Rosenthal, is Director of The Humantics Foundation for Women and

> author of Breast Implants, The Myths, The Facts the Women. Daily she

> communicates with thousands of implanted women and their families via her

> email lists. She can be reached at 858/270-0680 ~ ilena@... ~ or

> via alt.support.breast-implant.

>

>