Dow Corning Breast Implant Controversy

9 Pages 2217 Words

Dow Corning's full culpability in the silicone breast implant controversy is not widely known. For decades the company chose to keep secret a series of warning signals about silicone, and made misleading and false statements to the women who received implants. At the time, they did not realize that these secrets, misleading and false statements would rise up, years later, to haunt them.

The original Dow Corning sales pitch, in a brochure entitled "Facts About Your New Look," promised a lifetime of safety and satisfaction. Silicone breast implants were advertised as benign and chemically inactive. (In fact, Dow Corning had no substantial evidence of safety, but had plenty of evidence that silicone implants were a high-risk product.)

The beginning of the story goes back over 60 years!

1950's-- Silicone injections are banned in Japan because of dangerous side effects, including immunological problems.

1954--A Dow Coming Chemical study finds that a chemical in silicone, called silica, has "quite a high order of toxicity," but this study is not released publicly.

1956-- Again a Dow Corning Chemical study calls into question the safety of silicone, and again it is concealed from the public. Silicone fluid fed to laboratory dogs is found to migrate throughout their bodies and lodge in vital organs.

1960's-- California and Nevada pass laws against silicone injections, classifying them a criminal offence.

1961 -- As Dow Corning prepares to market the first silicone breast implants the company is advised by its own Center for Aid to Medical Research that silicone will bleed through a silicone bag and be absorbed into human tissue. Silicone leaking from implants can be equivalent to injections of silicone into the body.

1962-- Alarmed about the health dangers posed by silicone, the FDA issues strict new regulations governing silicone injections.

1963-- Dow Corning begins selling silicone breast implants under the...