Dying for Bigger Breasts
More women than ever, it seems, want larger breasts. Women are entering contests to get them. They're dipping into their savings accounts or maxing out their credit cards to buy them. There are even television programs that pay for women's implants just so they can document the surgery experience.

About four out of five women receive implants for cosmetic reasons, while the remainder are implanted for reconstruction after breast cancer surgery. Breast enhancement is one of the most popular forms of plastic surgery in North America. But the desire for bigger breasts is only part of the story.


Saline Implants Cause Illness
The use of silicone gel filled implants was restricted in the early 1990's when the manufacturer's couldn't prove they were safe. This was after thousands of women, sometimes called "silicone women," had become ill from being implanted. Saline filled implants, considered a "safe" alternative, became the only type widely available in the US. Doctors are seeing cases where the saline becomes contaminated with bacteria, creating health problems. Also causing serious health problems is the silicone shell that cases all saline filled implants, making a whole new generation of "silicone women."


Symptoms of Silicone Illness
Typical symptoms associated with silicone illness (also called "silicone poisoning" or "silicosis") include cognitive dysfunction, short-term memory loss, Sjogren's syndrome (dryness in the glands, such as the mouth, kidneys, eyes, and lungs), scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, dermatom-yositis, severe joint and muscle pain, incapacitating fatigue, swollen lymph glands, skin problems, peripheral numbness, multiple allergies, headaches, hair loss, sunlight sensitivity, central nervous system disorders (similar to multiple sclerosis), and others.

Among 176 breast implant patients examined by doctors at the Hospital for Joint Diseases, Orthopedic Institute in New York City, the most frequently reported symptoms were chronic fatigue (77%), cognitive dysfunction (65%), severe joint pain (56%), dry mouth (53%), dry eyes (50%), hair loss (40%), and difficulty in swallowing (35%).
(Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatology 24:1 Suppl 1 [August 1994]. 29-37.)SYMP


Chemicals in Breast Implants
Below is a list of only a few of the chemicals which experts have found in explanted breast implants. People working in the plants that manufacture these chemicals limit their exposure to them. It's unbelievable that we permit this type of internal chemical exposure.

Methylene Chloride/Dichloromethane breaks down in the body so blood cannot carry oxygen. It metabolizes carbon monoxide poisoning and causes central nervous system depression.


Ties to Cancer & Suicide
Women with breast implants are significantly more likely to die of brain cancer, respiratory-tract diseases and suicide than normal, report researchers at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD., the National Institute of Health's cancer-research wing.

Medical scientists have found that women with implants had double the risk of dying from brain cancer than other female plastic surgery patients. The research team compared these two groups because these women tend to come from the same economic and social backgrounds, therefore minimizing the chance that lifestyle was responsible for this deadly difference. The rates of all the lethal problems the researchers found also are higher in women with implants than the general population. -Excerpt from United Press International article, April 27, 2001 by Charles Choi, Science Writer.


Implants Making Children Ill
There seems to be a pattern in children, ill after being carried or nursed by mothers with breast implants. A possible factor is the platinum used in the implant shell. Platinum is a potent toxin that can cross the blood/brain barrier causing neurological problems. With saline implants, not only is platinum in the shell, but bacteria may pass via nursing. Symptoms range from mild to severe - including digestive problems, rashes, skin disorders, arthritis, bone deformities, behavior and learning disorders, joint pain and allergies. Regardless, most doctors recommend nursing. It's suggested that if you choose to nurse with implants, that your milk is tested first.


Facts You Need to Know

Research collected by the PSC shows that silicone has marked effects on the adrenal glands and liver, induces chronic inflammation, and degrades into smaller molecules, including silica. Silica in the body is a toxic, carcinogenic substance. Damaging the immune system, it killing cells and produces silicosis.

Dow Corning researchers studied silicone as a possible "better chemical warfare and riot control agent," according to a 1969 internal memorandum obtained by the PSC.

Deformities such as holes or cracks were found in 41% of 1,717 breast implants after 6 years of use and in 95% after 12 years of use. (Canadian Journal of Plastic Surgeons, Spring 1997)

Silicone elicits antibody responses and "immunological abnormalities," according to a study of 40 women who had received implants more than ten years earlier. (Toxicology and Industrial Health 8:6, November/December 1992, 415-429)

The activity of natural killer cells is "significantly suppressed" in at least 50% of women with silicone implants observed in a study; this puts the women at a higher risk of developing cancer. (Toxicology and Industrial Health 10:3, May/June 1994, 149-154)

High levels of anti-nuclear antibodies (ANAs), immune markers associated with lupus erthematosus, were observed in 10 of 11 women with implants reporting autoimmune symptoms. (Lancet 340:8831, November 28, 1992, 1304-1307)


Hope for Silicone Women
Most silicone associated symptoms improve when implants are removed and the residual silicone is detoxified from the body. Of 33 women who underwent implant removal (average age 44), 24 experienced significant improvement in numerous silicone-associated symptoms within 22 months. (Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatology 24:1 Suppl 1, August 1994, 22-28)