mindseye: Croixbull/aloofman: Do either of you drive automobiles? Haven't you heard how dangerous they are?
Anecdotal evidence -- the type you've supplied so far -- is the kind of evidence that "proves" Pop Rocks and Coke will make you explode.
Silicone...
A
UK review board wrote:
"The experiments in animals and in other laboratory systems, as well as the much more limited investigation of samples from people treated with implants, have shown only local reactions to certain types of elastomer and gel. Systemic damage and dispersal of implant materials throughout the body appears not to have been well demonstrated, despite various claims, even after rupture of the older gel-filled implants."
Longitudinal surveys at the same site indicated a slightly elevated risk of chronic disease following implantation. This risk varied according to the method of study and the sample size, but typical figures for case-controlled studies were slightly over 1%.
Because these are longitudinal case studies, this value represents the approximate increased risk of chronic disease over one's lifetime following implantation.
...vs. Cars
NHTSA data for 2000 (the most recent year for which data has been posted on their website) indicates that automobile fatalities in the US amounted to 22 deaths per 100,000 licensed drivers that year. This figure, incidentally, is the
lowest fatality rate of all the years reported, and not a typical or average value.
Assuming that a person begins driving around the age of 16, and continues to drive for 50 years, that annual rate of 22 per hundred thousand compounds to a lifetime risk of -- you guessed it, slightly over 1%.
In fact, we're not strictly comparing apples and oranges here, since the automobile data reports fatalities only, whereas the silicone data includes diseases that may not necessarily be life-threatening. Then again, the silicone study was of various types of
breast implants, not penile or scrotal implants. Absent more specific data, though, it seems reasonable to infer that the risk involved with a silicone implant is roughly comparable to the risk involved with driving a car.
