A huge
scandal has broken out in France over faulty silicon breast implants. But the
scandal has far-reaching consequences for women as far away as Chile and China.
(Photo: RNW) |
There are
tens of thousands of women in France living in fear right now that their breast
implants may have to be removed. Research into the implants made by the French
manufacturer PIP show that the silicon material is prone to bursting. There are
also fears about the safety of the implants after women died of cancer some
time after receiving them.
Worldwide
scandal
The French
government is expected to call up all women who have the implants to have them
removed as a precaution. Around 30,000 French women will be affected who have
either decided to have a breast enlargement operation for esthetical reasons or
because of the removal of a breast after cancer treatment. But the matter has
gone far beyond the French borders. There is already talk of a “worldwide
scandal”.
The French
company PIP has been producing breast implants for almost ten years. And with
great success. The company became a world leader in the sector: producing
100,000 implants every year, which are distributed to 65 countries all over the
world. The main market (50 percent) is in South America, where the implants are
sold via hospitals in Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina.
A quarter
of the exports went to West European countries like Great Britain, Germany,
Belgium and the Netherlands. The French implants were also shipped to the
Middle East (from Turkey to Syria) and Azia (from Thailand to China).
Burst
The bubble
has burst, so to speak, for the French company. In 2010, the first problems
came to light. PIP used a different type of silicon than it officially
registered; the implants were cheaper and of inferior quality: so they burst.
More than 2000 French women took the company to court because PIP had
misinformed them
Problems
emerged in other countries too. In the spring of 2010, the Chilean authorities
took the French breast implants off the market. Venezuela and Brazil followed
suit, as did Colombia later.
Carcinogenic?
In West
Europe, the Spanish authorities called on hospitals to stop using PIP products,
in Great Britain hundreds of women took the company to court.
Last month,
the ‘silicon scandal’ took on a whole new dimension when a French woman with
PIP breast implants died of lymph cancer. Her family blamed her illness and
death on the silicon implants. Research has not been able to show a direct
link, but that made little difference to the commotion in France.
Now Paris
is considering advising all 30,000 French women with PIP implants to have them
removed as a precaution. The government is almost certain to foot the bill,
because the French breast implant company PIP has gone bankrupt and is
therefore unable to pay compensation. In Great Britain, women with PIP implants
have decided to sue the clinics which operated on them.
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