1992: US halts breast implants
The United States Government has advised doctors to suspend the use of silicone breast implants pending an investigation into their safety.
The move has raised fears around the world that silicone breast implants could leak or rupture, causing injury or illness.
The US Food and Drug Administration said surgeons should stop operating for 45 days while new evidence was examined by a special advisory panel.
Last November, the FDA received 2,500 complaints from women who experienced problems such as persistent pain, ruptures, hardening of breast tissue and recurrent ill health.
Many British surgeons have accused the US Government of scaremongering. They insist that breast implants are safe, with few side-effects reported since they were introduced 30 years ago. "There's a lot of hysteria appearing and there's a lot of misleading results," said Paul Levick of the National Hospital for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. "We are still waiting for any evidence that stands up to scientific scrutiny that there is any danger from these implants."
At least two million women in America are said to have breast implants - 80% for cosmetic reasons.
In the UK, about 100,000 women have had breast augmentation operations and about half of those were carried out to reconstruct the breast after surgery to remove cancer.
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