Fw: Pam writes to: NY Times: March 6, 2001, Calculating Safety inRisky World of Drugs

[Guest guest]

From: PamD (by way of ilena rose) <spudnik@...>

Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 4:33 PM

Subject: Pam writes to: NY Times: March 6, 2001, Calculating Safety inRisky

World of Drugs

> ~~~ Bravo, Bravo, Pam. Please others, write them your opinions. Ilena ~~~

>

> letters@...

>

> Letters to the Editor:

> Re: March 6, 2001,

>

> From: Calculating Safety in Risky World of Drugs

> By DENISE GRADY

>

> quote:

>

> " The F.D.A.'s worst hour of recent times was the breast implant

> fiasco. Someone claimed that leaking silicone caused systemic illness,

> and F.D.A., instead of pointing out that the epidemiological evidence

> was essentially absent, triggered what turned out to be a

> multibillion-dollar transfer from publicly held companies to the tort

> lawyers and destroyed the scientific credibility of the agency in many

> minds. That's the easiest example. But there have been many others. "

>

> letters@...

>

> Contrary to what the makers of breast implants would have the public

> believe, F.D.A. has allowed thousands of breast implants to be foisted

> upon vulnerable women without proof of safety since 1962. Studies,

bought

> and paid for by the manufacturers and the A.S.P.R.S., were biased to

> provide the public with a false sense of security.

>

> Contrary to the idea promoted in the media, Dow Corning has NOT been

> chased into bankruptcy. They have been enjoying good financial times and

> expanding around the globe. Their co-owner, Dow Chemical, has been

> released from responsibility in their share of the research. Thousands

of

> women who have become ill have been forced into bankruptcy because of

> their on-going medical expenses. Contrary to what the manufacturers and

> the A.S.P.R.S. would have you believe, from 1962 to 1992, there were not

> two millions women with breast implants.

>

> According to their own documents, if push came to shove, they could only

> prove less than 750,000. And, contrary to the perception created in the

> media, 440,000 women, registered in the multi-district class action, did

> NOT become rich. We are not driving Mercedes. We are sick.

>

> And, many of the attorneys have not received anything but a headache out

> of this process.

>

> In the early 1990s, the A.S.P.R.S, under the leadership of Dr. Norman

> Cole, began a campaign to target the 88,000 new white breast cancer

> patients each year. Women, already facing tragic situations in life,

> became the focus of A.S.P.R.S greed.

>

> At the National Breast Implant Depository in Birmingham, AL, reside 80

> millions documents obtained from manufacturers, the A.S.P.R.S., and the

> F.D.A. One million of those documents are on evidentiary CDs. I

> challenge any reporter of the NY Times or Stossel, the junk science

> King, to meet a group of women whose lives were changed forever by the

> toxins in breast implants in Birmingham, AL.

>

> Perhaps one of the illustrious media can force the opening of the

> incriminating Bell documents that Judge Sam C. Pointer obviously

> believed were so damaging to Dow Corning, he agreed with Dow Corning that

> they should never see the light of day. And IF the F.D.A. and their

> staff had done the job of protecting the public as they should, we would

> not be in the state were are in today. But IF the F.D.A. had done its

> job, Dr. Fenichel would probably not have the cushy job he has

> today with a manufacturer he was once charged to regulate. Pam

>

> 26 year Breast Cancer Survivor

> 20 year Breast Implant veteran

>

> http://www.webpak.net/~spudnik/www.homestead.com/sosalines/sos.html

>

>