Implant Firm to Probe Its Own Actions : Health: Dow Corning hires Griffin Bell, former attorney general, to oversee investigation of company’s development of silicone breast devices.

Dow Corning Corp., in the midst of a fierce struggle to keep its silicone gel breast implants on the market, announced Wednesday that former Atty. Gen. Griffin B. Bell has been hired to oversee an internal investigation of the company’s conduct during the development, production and marketing of the controversial devices.

“We have taken this action to provide . . . a reasoned review by qualified experts regarding Dow Corning’s conduct in the development and marketing of this device,” J. Kermit Campbell, group vice president of the company, said in a statement.

“Judge Bell has a long and distinguished career, not only in jurisprudence but also in conducting similar internal investigations for other companies,” he said.

Bell, a former federal appeals judge and attorney general under President Jimmy Carter, is a partner in the Atlanta law firm of King & Spaulding. He was hired by E.F. Hutton in 1985 to investigate a check-kiting scandal, which he blamed on management problems. He also has served more recently on a Bush Administration ethics panel.

Dow Corning officials said that they had notified the Food and Drug Administration of their action.

In response, Carol Scheman, FDA deputy commissioner for external affairs, said that the company’s investigation would have no bearing on the agency’s own inquiry unless it produced significant new information that could affect the deliberations of an FDA advisory panel scheduled to reconvene Feb. 18.

The advisory committee, which concluded in November that data submitted by Dow Corning had failed to prove the products safe, is debating whether the implants should remain widely available.

Hiring Bell is the latest in a series of damage control efforts by Dow Corning, which has been fighting to convince both the FDA and the public that the implants are safe. Several weeks ago, the company released a scientific review by an outside consultant which concluded that the devices are safe and effective.

While there are proven risks associated with the devices, some women also have blamed leaking silicone for such disorders as lupus and arthritis, although a connection between the implants and those diseases has not been scientifically established.

Dow Corning Wright, the corporation’s subsidiary and the leading manufacturer of silicone gel breast implants in this country, has been under fire for allegedly rushing at least one new line of implants onto the market without adequate testing.

The contents of internal company memos, which have been widely reported, depicted the company as eager to market the implants and reluctant to conduct studies on the health consequences of silicone leakage. The firm has denied the allegations and characterized the memos as only one side of an internal company debate.

Based on these and other documents, FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler on Jan. 6 called for a moratorium on the sale and use of the implants until the committee could study the new information. Meanwhile, the agency--prohibited by law from making the documents public--asked the company to do so.

Dow Corning said last week that it would release the documents within a week to 10 days. But on Wednesday, the FDA released an exchange of letters between the agency and the company, in which Dow Corning discussed its intention to withhold the documents until Bell’s investigation is finished. It did not say how long that would be.

The FDA called the time-frame “unsatisfactory.”

Dow Corning said Wednesday that it would release the material during the week of Feb. 10. The FDA, in a letter sent Wednesday to the company, called upon Dow Corning to release the documents earlier, at least by Feb. 7, so the public and members of the advisory committee would have time to review them before the panel reconvenes.