Platinum Found in Women With Breast Implants

[JPace]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040601917.html

Platinum Found in Women With Breast Implants

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 7, 2006; A06



Researchers have found a new reason for possible concern about the safety of silicone gel breast implants: high and potentially hazardous levels of the metal platinum in some women who had silicone implants in their bodies for many years.

With the Food and Drug Administration poised to allow silicone implants back on the market for unrestricted sale, two researchers reported this week in a journal of the American Chemical Society that they found high levels of platinum salts in the urine, hair and breast milk of 16 women with silicone gel implants.

The platinum, they concluded, was in a form that made it a potential source of severe allergic or toxic reactions. Their findings were immediately challenged by chemists associated with implant makers and are at odds with the longtime conclusions of the FDA, which has determined that the platinum used to make silicone gel implants is inactive and unable to cause harm.
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