This information is meant to be used in speeches as well as casual conversations with relatives, friends, and neighbors. Today we address silicone gel breast implants. Dow later acknowledged in a 1987 study that the chronic reactions to silicone seen in test animals could trigger autoimmune-type diseases in humans. Yet Dow never revealed these dangers to its customers. Implant manufacturers have refused and continue to refuse to comply with the law.
Breast implants have an extremely high rupture rate, and are thus defective.
Manufacturers told women that implants would last a lifetime. But recent studies published in the American Journal of Radiology and Annals of Plastic Surgery reveal a rupture rate of 5 to 51 percent. A third study, published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, reveals that over 95 percent of the implants studied ruptured by their seventeenth year. Safety concerns over silicone gel breast implants are not confined to the United States. Both studies relied exclusively upon review of medical records and in neither were women actually examined or questioned.