The worldwide controversy around the safety of PIP (Poly Implant Prosthèse) breast implants has elicited different responses from governments, despite all of them seemingly acting on the same set of evidence. These responses illustrate how little we have learnt from the debate and worldwide litigation that raged around breast implants in the 1980s and 1990s.From what has been reported to date, the evidence on adverse outcomes from these implants is weak. So, while the governments of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Czech Republic have advised women with PIP implants to have them removed, the Australian government has said there’s no evidence to support their removal.
The problem with the PIP implants arise from the fact that some of them were filled with industrial-grade silicone rather than more expensive, higher quality medical silicone.
Silicones are man-made compounds of silicon, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They’re used in cosmetics, to lubricate machinery, in foods and as hydraulic and brake fluid. If breast implants rupture, the silicone can leach into the body and the effects of this leaching is what is in dispute.
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