Note from Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal:
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com
This im****tant piece is as true today as when published in the San
Diego Business Journal 10 years ago. Indeed, the same "junk science'
public relations team to cover up the harm of breast implants, was
first funded by the tobacco industry.
www.BreastImplantAwareness.org/Smokescreen.htm
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. (update: in November,
2006, after 40 years, the FDA caved in to industry demands and gave
'safety approval' with many unenforceable conditions to Inamed &
Mentor for silicone breast implants. Dr. Sidney Wolfe said it best:
The approval makes a mockery of the legal standard that requires
“reasonable assurance of safety.”)
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 *****uous relation****p 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 ***.
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) causes" disease."
It's easy.
Human beings make lousy lab rats. Tobacco has honed this formula
beautifully for well over 50 profit-filled years. We've really "come a
long way, baby."
However, it wasn't until October 1996 (Science, October 18) after
thousands of studies and tens of millions of smoking-related deaths,
that medical science was able to identify a "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.
"Tobacco science" had proven what everyone has known for decades.
Since the 60's, the silicone manufacturers, claiming no culpability,
out of court and out of the public eye, s'ettled thousands of cases of
implant problems with "gag" orders which kept their "dirty little
secrets" hidden.
When one brave woman, Mariann 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 Dow's 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 "proof"
of implant safety. "Similar 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."
Dr. Wallace, whose recent lecture aired on UCSD-TV, described saline
implants as "bags of water," never mentioning the fungus, mold and
bacterial infections known to flourish in these degradable silicone
envelopes. Mrs. Farber added, "Over 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."
However, on KNSD-TV, "Dirty Doctor" Dean Edell, describes saline
implants as "perfectly safe, perfectly fine." He has also been heard
proclaiming that he hopes that "implanted women never get a penny"
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 cra****ng the huge class action suit.
Meanwhile, while safely in "bankruptcy protection" 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 "cost benefit." 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. Michael 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. I've heard of no women, however, who
received a "recall notice."
The infamous class action suits have been brilliant stalling devices
to keep the money where the manufacturers want it. Mentor Cor****ation
of Santa Barbara, threatening bankruptcy, forced all recipients to
settle with a "take it or leave it" 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 ac***ulated over $120,000 in medical bills, and
lives in constant pain. Her total settlement from Mentor -- $379.90.
"It 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." 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.
"Women harmed by breast implants deserve access to the court system."
"Silicone Science" like "Tobacco Science" 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 ****eld denying
benefits to "women with a history of implants," 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 ©1997
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