Dow: No Place to Hide : Internal review is no substitute for full disclosure on implants

Dow Corning Corp., the leading manufacturer of silicone breast implants, is playing a dangerous and self-defeating game. The more Dow resists publicly disclosing breast implant information, the more the company risks public ill will.

Internal Dow documents leaked earlier this month depict the manufacturer as being so eager to market one line of implants during the 1970s that it may have ignored warnings from scientists and physicians of possible health risks and postponed critical safety studies.

In the wake of the FDA’s decision on Jan. 6 to impose a voluntary moratorium on the sale and use of silicone implants pending further review, the agency has ordered Dow to make these documents public. The FDA already has the documents, and its advisory panel on breast implant safety will review them along with other material when it reconvenes later this month. The FDA now wants the public to see them as well, but the agency has no authority to release this proprietary material.

Dow initially agreed to release its documents but now appears to be stalling. Instead, Dow has hired former Atty. Gen. Griffin B. Bell to oversee an internal investigation of the company’s conduct during the development, production and marketing of the controversial implants.

An internal review clearly seems in order, but given the allegations of scientific impropriety and questions about implant safety, an internal review is no substitute for public disclosure.

If Dow’s implants are safe and if its research and testing were conducted in a scientifically rigorous fashion, the company has nothing to fear and everything to gain from prompt public disclosure. If Dow continues to stall, it only raises more doubts in the minds of the American public and causes further emotional pain for the estimated 2 million women with breast implants.