STARPRESS: Study says breast implants are still cause for concern

Ilena Rose · medicine forum Guru Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 813

http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060424/LIFESTYLE/604240302&SearchID=73242563724491

BRAVO to Marlene and Beth!

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Study says breast implants are still cause for concern

By NASEEM SOWTI
nsowti@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE -- If there was a worst-case scenario for getting silicone
breast implants, Marlene Miller would be the one to talk about it.
With a total of 10 surgeries since 1975 -- each surgeon trying to fix
the work of previous one and inserting a new pair of implants --
Miller, who is now 57 years old, ended up with no implants and a slew
of medical conditions that she attributes to silicone gel leaking into
her body.

"I can spit into a white paper towel, and it looks like someone shook
silvery sprinkles all over it," Miller said.

That silicone implants can be hazardous to women's health is what
pulled them out of the U.S. market in 1992. But the possibility of
them releasing a harmful form of platinum into the body has never been
seriously debated until now.

Earlier this month, researchers reported that they have found high and
potentially hazardous levels of platinum salt in some women who had
silicone implants for many years.

Last June, Miller finally found a toxicology lab in Texas -- the same
one that released the recent report -- that was willing to test her
saliva and urine for the presence of platinum.

"They said the level of platinum in my saliva was 1.1, and it should
be zero," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
standards, she said.

"But no one takes this seriously. I live in a small town in
Pennsylvania, and the doctors here think I'm a joke," said Miller, who
now suffers from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, Barrett syndrome,
and scar tissue in her chest, which resulted from the implants and
related surgeries.

The study, which was published in a journal of the American Chemical
Society, comes out as the Food and Drug Administration is poised to
allow silicone implants back on the market for unrestricted sale. And
the recent report is challenged by chemists associated with implant
makers and some of the medical community.

The study is based on findings in 16 women, and "16 is not a
significant number," when it comes to scientific research, said Ansar
Ansari, a cosmetic surgeon in Muncie.

Michael Brook, a chemist and silicone-manufacturing expert at McMaster
University in Hamilton, Ontario, told The Washington Post earlier this
month that the new study contained some data and conclusions about
platinum that were very hard, if not impossible, to accept.

And last week, a new study, funded by Dow Corning Corporation, which
was a major maker of silicone implants in the 1990s and ended up
paying more than $3 billion in lawsuits, reassured the safety of
silicone implants.

While, most of the previous consumers are unhappy with the possible
return of silicone implants, many cosmetic surgeons are looking
forward to their FDA approval, since "silicone feels more natural
(than saline implants) ... It feels more like breast tissue," Ansari
said.

Saline implants have been used as an alternative to silicone in the
past decade, albeit there also are horror stories surrounding those
implants, like that of Beth Taylor -- www.toxicbreastimplants.org.

Meanwhile, the breast-augmentation business has been growing, as there
was a 10-percent increase in breast enhancements from 2004 to 2005,
and a 37-percent increase between years 2000 and 2005, according to
the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

"Of course I had worries," said Cindy Whittenburg of Muncie, who got
saline implants in February to go from size 34A to 36C. "I am a
registered nurse, and I knew first hand about the dangers, but I think
compliance and listening to the doctor means a lot, too." She added
that she doesn't smoke or drink, which would lower her risk of
possible complications.

There were roughly 290,000 breast augmentations in 2005 and 25,000
implant removals, according to the ASPS. From the hundreds of implants
Ansari has placed in the past two decades, he said he has had "one
implant that failed" and had to be removed.

Contact news reporter Naseem Sowti at 213-5829.

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