My Woman's Day rebuttal

[Guest guest]

Dear Woman's Day,

I was greatly offended at your recent article in which you included

a sloppy discussion regarding risks associated with breast

implants.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at the lack of journalistic

integrity found with your magazine? It just strengthens my resolve

never to buy your magazine again, nor stock them in our business

waiting rooms.

The author of this poorly researched article states, " " Remember:

Heart-wrenching stories aren't proof. Wait for hard scientific

evidence to come in before you buy into any health scare. " For

example, everybody just " knows " that silicone breast implants cause

illness, " says University of Delaware sociologist Best, Ph.d.,

author of Damned lies and statistics. " Weve all seen a woman on

Oprah saying " I had breast implants and I feel lousy. " Then we've

seen some lawyer saying, " no, doubt about it. The implants are

making her sick. " Trouble is , when research on breast implants was

finally published, scientists couldn't find any evidence it was

true. " If you take 10000 women with implants, some of them are going

to get sick, not because they have breast implants, but because they

are people. " The scientific question to ask is this: Do women with

implants get sick more often than women without implants? When the

scientific evidence came in, the answer was no. "

Unfortunately, you got it just plain wrong. There is, in fact,

evidence that implants are associated with illness. You just didn't

look carefully enough, nor pay attention to who is doing the

funding. Everyone knows you can get manufacturer's to pay for a

study to say what they need it to say for their bottom line. Do you

really think that American women are that stupid?

There are some fairly recent studies published in Epidemiology

(2001), American Journal of Epidemiology (2001), Journal of

Rheumatology (May 2001), and ls of Epidemiology (May 2001) that

show an increased risk of undifferentiated connective tissue

disease, brain cancer, lung cancer and suicide associated with

breast implants and other implanted medical devices. Hmmm, I wonder

why you didn't want to make that fact known?

As just as importantly, since we know that breast implants can

induce illness in women across geographical lines, what about data

from other countries? In a recent Canadian study, supported by the

British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health,

epidemiologist Aleina Tweed focused

on the frequency of health-care use by women with implants, and the

financial burden borne by women and by the public-health system as a

consequence of breast-implant surgery. Data collected from a study

group of 147 women who had undergone breast-implant surgery were

compared to data from a group of 583 women without implants.

Ms. Tweed found that women who have or have had breast implants

visited doctors and specialists significantly more often, were more

than four times as likely to be hospitalized than the women without

implants, and were twice as likely to be admitted to hospital

electively.

You and your employees have done a great disservice to women with

your sloppy and misinformed article about the dangers associated

with breast implants. Those dangers are entirely real. I know,

because I experienced them. Perhaps you want to apologize and/or

retract your information to be more truthful? Until then, I will do

my best to correct the information you have given out by publicly

exposing your misinformation on the internet.

Sincerely,

Patty Faussett

Founder of Salinesupport