For women who have or will consider the wisdom of breast implants, the latest developments on their safety could be construed as confusing — at best.
Monday, Dow Coming acknowledged that silicone implants can cause health "complications" — but no illnesses — and offered $2.4 billion as a settlement to over 200,000 women worldwide who claim ill effects. Last week, a Louisiana jury ruled that Dow Chemical, one of Dow Coming's owners, was negligent in testing silicone for breast implants and lied about possible risks.
Despite such acknowledgments of significant concern, an array of women's groups and medical associations continue to pressure the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ease restrictions.
The explanation for this puzzling contradiction: science.
Medical studies have proved and manufacturers have acknowledged that the silicone implants first developed in the 1960s can and do rupture, leak and cause "local" complications.
That reality, no doubt, led other manufacturers also to offer settlements to women with implant problems.
What science has not proved is what if any, link exists between the implants and more serious illnesses.
Large-scale, controlled epidemiological studies have found no greatly increased risk of developing either connective-tissue disease or autoimmune illnesses for more than I million women who have undergone breast reconstruction or augmentation, a finding acknowledged by the FDA earlier this year.
This medical reality is why organizations representing cancer victims, such as Y-ME and the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, have joined with professional groups, such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Society of Surgical Oncology, in pushing the FDA to make silicone implants more readily available to more women. Currently, only women needing breast reconstruction for medical reasons who are part of a few clinical trials have access to silicone implants.
Obviously, no one should be encouraged to pursue an invasive surgical procedure such as a br- east implant without good reason. And even with good reason, women should understand the risks involved before making that choice.
Until science proves otherwise, that choice should be theirs to make.
Copyright © 1997 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved. Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.
Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of the author.