The Silicone Gel Breast Implant, the Most Studied Device in the World [Part 4 of 5]

During the silicone breast implant moratorium, juries continued to grant large awards based on “junk science” and an unproven link to autoimmune illness, and the plaintiff’s bar and “experts” continued to reap huge fees for their efforts. Even before the historic bankruptcy of Dow Corning, the medical community responded with study after study failing to show any link to silicone implants and autoimmune or connective tissue disease. The Mayo Clinic published their findings in 1994, Harvard in 1995, the compiled work by the American College of Rheumatology in 1995, all finding no increased risk to women with silicone gel breast implants. Despite the data, over 400,000 women had filed for settlements. With continued U.S. and international studies, the turning point was reached in late 1996 when the federal court in Oregon ruled that plaintiff’s lawyers could no longer present evidence that was scientifically invalid. The National Cancer Institute later published their results refuting any link between breast implants and breast cancer. And in 1999, the National Academy of Sciences under the Institute of Medicine released its report refuting the claim that silicone breast implants are responsible for any major disease. As the decade of the 1990’s ended, the toll on American women was horrific with scares of cancer and illness, and the toll on the American worker and investor, with thousands of lost jobs, devastating. The “hoax” cost Dow Corning over 3 billion dollars, and destroyed many other companies altogether.