More good news! Health Canada may declare silicone breast implants toxic

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http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=717bc495-17c0-45f4-8476-d938dd31fa13Health Canada may declare silicone breast implants toxic Schmidt,

Canwest News ServicePublished: 10 hours agoOTTAWA

- Health Canada may have to reverse its controversial 2006 decision to

allow women to get silicone gel-filled breast implants if it proceeds

with a plan to declare key chemicals found in them to be toxic, experts

say.Health Canada is expected to announce Friday its plans for

synthetic chemicals found in silicone fluids as part of a risk

assessment of 200 chemical substances, identified as top priorities for

action because they are potentially harmful to human health or the

environment.It has already written to industry, explaining that

"in the absence of additional relevant information," the government is

"predisposed to conclude, based on a screening assessment, that this

substance satisfies the definition of toxic (under the) Canadian

Environmental Protection Act."A silicone gel breast implant.Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A

toxic declaration about the Cyclohexasiloxane family, also known as D4,

D5, D6, would start a process that could lead to a ban in certain

products, as is the case with bisphenol A in baby bottles."The

different departments at Health Canada have been a bit of a

dysfunctional family that don't listen to one another. If the

environmental assessment decides this should be toxic, there should be

a duty of the medical devices branches to study whether it should be

taken off the market," said Dr. Kapil Khatter, scientific adviser for

Environmental Defence.Silicone implants were pulled from the

market in 1992 amid concerns they were unsafe for women. Fourteen years

later, Health Canada changed course and made them freely available to

women with the caveat that "no medical device is 100 per cent safe."Health

Canada said it reviewed more than 65,000 pages of evidence submitted by

manufacturers and more than 2,500 scientific articles in reaching its

decision to grant licences to two companies to market silicone implants.Until then, only breast implants filled with saline were licensed for sale in Canada.The

October 2006 decision came just months after Health Canada's scientific

advisory committee said questions "had not been sufficiently addressed"

about potential health risks should the gels leak into women's bodies

and about whether the implants increase the risk of auto-immune

diseases in the long term.In May 2007, as part of its chemicals management plan, Health Canada asked industry to prove D4, D5 and D6 were safe.The chemicals also were found in cosmetics and other personal care products.Health

Canada flagged D4 as a priority because the European Commission lists

it as a reproductive toxin. D5 and D6 were prioritized because of

environmental concerns. Zuckerman, president of the

Washington, D.C.-based National Research Center for Women and Families,

says she'll be watching Health Canada's decision closely, particularly

if it lays the groundwork for a ban on silicone breast implants."I've

been concerned not just about D4. There are lots of chemicals in there

that are of concern. If this finally had an impact, it would be really

something," said Zuckerman.Health Canada also will announce Friday its decision about vinyl acetate, commonly used as a base in chewing gum.