PIP 'cheap silicone' breast implant manufacturer jailed: 18,500 women in Spain affected
Friday, December 13, 2013 @ 1:31 PM
THE inventor of the so-called PIP breast implants has been sentenced to four years in jail after it was found that these were filled with an unregulated 'low-cost' gel and thousands of them split and leaked inside patients – of whom 3,000 in Spain have already had surgery to remove them.
He is also ordered to pay a fine of 75,000 euros and banned from practicing medicine of any description.
Jean-Claude Mas, 74, founder of the company PIP in Marseilles, France in 1991, supplied breast implants at rock-bottom prices and became a market leader, until it was found he had been manufacturing them with industrial silicone which cost a tenth of that which is regulated by medical laws worldwide.
He managed to save about a million euros a year by using cheap silicone until it was banned in 2010.
On average, within less than 11 years of a breast implant operation, the PIP (Poly Implant Prosthesis) sacs burst completely open and have to be removed by emergency surgery for the woman's safety.
A total of 18,500 women in Spain alone have had PIP implants fitted, of whom 4.2 per cent did so for medical reasons, such as after a mastectomy, and 3,000 have had them taken out either after they burst or as a precaution.
Around 30,000 women in France have had them fitted and the worldwide total is estimated to be well in excess of 80,000.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com