Quote of the Day

“The shells themselves are made of different materials, a barrier shell, that is relatively much more impermeable.” Dr. Scott L. Spear, the chief of plastic surgery at Georgetown University who has conducted clinical research for Allergan of Irvine, Calif., describing new silicone breast implants approved by the FDA and available for you use on Monday.

My first thought, well - maybe my second thought - upon reading that the FDA has approved silicone breast implants and dismissed earlier safety concerns was "wow - Dow Corning must be pissed." But, it looks like they emerged from bankruptcy ok and have a spiffy website up and running, so I guess that whole "class action" thing is in their past.

The more I read the article, and the more I reminded myself that this FDA is part of the Bush administration, the more skeptical I became. And then I came to today's Quote of the Day, and other comments that 70% of implants rupture and that women should only assume that their implants are safe for 3 years, after which they need to have regular MRIs. If you are gonna put a plastic bag in your body and fill it up with liquid, wouldn't you want it to be close to the fluids that are already there? Silicone? Forget about it - you might as well have kerosene implants as far as I'm concerned.

As is rightfully pointed out by "Dr. Sidney Wolfe, chief of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. . . 'The approval makes a mockery of the legal standard that requires ‘reasonable assurance of safety.’ ”

At any rate, someone needs to send Dr. Scott L. Spear over at Georgetown a dictionary. American Heritage Dictionary defines 'Impermeable' as "impossible to permeate" - as in, nothing can get through; zero; zilch; nada. Something can't be more impermeable, more impossible. It is impossible for me to fly - but is it more impossible for me to fly in outer-space?

As if that wasn't enough, he even qualifies the "more impermeable" with "relatively." I guess that means that the new implants are more "more impermeable" that some things, but less "more impermeable" than others?

full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/washington/18breast.html
read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111701246.html