Jean-Claude Mas the former head of Poly Implant Prothese
(PIP) was recently released from jail under court supervision with a pending
trial planned to occur next year. He was imprisoned after admitting to using a
non medical form of silicone in breast implants. These implants caused a global health
scare. The French media reported 8 women who have received these implants have
gotten cancer. The significance of this statistic is debated and I am rather
skeptical of it myself since 30,000 french women and 40,000 british women are
estimated to have received the implants and more were exported to Spain and
Latin America. The company claims that
there is no evidence that the product is dangerous for health even though it is
unapproved. On the other hand, over 1,000 of the 30,000 who received the
implants in france had ruptures or leakage. According to Wikipedia (cited Walker PS et al. (2009). "Natrelle
Saline-filled Breast Implants: a Prospective 10-year Study". Aesthetic
Surgery Journal 29 (1): 19–25. doi:10.1016/j.asj.2008.10.001)
there is a 7–10 per cent rupture-deflation rate at
10-years post-implantation. If this is the case normally, one could expect up
to 3,000 women to experience rupture so the number of 1,000 doesn’t seem so
high.
Although there have been cases of
rupture and leakage as well as women with the implants who get cancer, such can
be expected. The real problem for me here is not the statistics about
complications, it’s the fact that a substandard silicone that has not been
approved to be used medically was used for the implants. Although many have
been experiencing complications, when compared to other statistics such as
those of California as cited in Wikipedia it seems these implants do not seem
to pose an eminent threat, despite the international debate on the issue.
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