It takes one to know one — a most unrepentant bad guy.
The Telegraph reports,
Jean-Claude Mas, 72, told gendarmes he had given orders as early as 1993 to “hide the truth” about the true contents of the implants, made by his firm Poly Implant Protheses (PIP).
He started using industrial-grade silicon, not tested on humans, rather than medical-grade material to boost profits.
Despite admitting the deception, he told French police during interviews that he had “nothing to say” to the 300,000 women around the globe who had received the sub-standard implants.
Some 40,000 British women given the implants are waiting to hear whether the Government will help fund removal, even if they have not ruptured. An announcement from the Department of Health is expected later today (Friday).
In a statement to gendarmes made in October 2011, Mr Mas said he “always new” the silicone used in PIP implants was “not approved”. He said he “knowingly” changed the composition “because PIP gel was cheaper and as far as the price-performance ratio is concerned it was cheaper and of better quality”.
He branded those who had filed legal complaints for ruptured implants as “fragile people or people who do that for money”, and claimed the gel posed “no health risk”.
When asked what he had to say to women traumatised by ruptured implants and obliged to have them removed, he replied: “I have nothing to say to them. Nothing”…
You forget that we women also lack accountability, as well as logic.
There is a huge difference between industrial plastics and medical grades. Medical products require much higher purity, with very few additives and very tight property specifications. Industrial plastics have more additives and stabilizers, and the the specifications are generally looser. That is the issue. While very few (effectively none) additives are actually toxic, they are generally not good to absorb into the bloodstream.
That’s why medical grades are more expensive. Due to the higher requirements, you lose a lot in offgrade and scrap that is not otherwise useful because it doesn’t have the preservatives to last in general industry.
Perhaps they were more likely to rupture because of the “industrial” rather than “medical” grade? I could see how traces of stuff that might be refined out of the medical-grade stuff could affect the integrity of the implant envelope. Just asking from a position of total ignorance on silicone manufacture/processing.
George is absolutely right, but most women and many men can not follow the logic. They word pair. It’s a shame.
Can’t say he is far off the mark with his “fragile people or people who do that for money” remark. But the implants were substandard, not because of the gel, but because they tended to rupture more easily.
But if you take the el cheapo trip, you can’t complain about the the dirty toilet.
Toxicologically speaking, just what is the difference between the PIP industrial-grade silicone gel and the medical grade? One chemical in my professional experience is used industrially and pharmaceutical. The two products come out of the same process stream, and are identical, except that the pharmaceutical grade gets a test for bacteria. Due to the nature of the process, there aren’t any bacteria in the material. So were the PIP implants really “substandard”?