Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 14:17:04 -0700

3M Not Responsible for Breast Implant Injuries, Texas Jury Says Houston, Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co., maker of 50,000 products ranging from Post-it Notes to Scotch tape, is not responsible for injuries suffered by women whose silicone breast implants leaked, a Texas jury ruled.

Jurors deliberated seven hours yesterday in Texas's 129th District Court in Houston before absolving 3M of responsibility for injuries to three Texas women who claimed ruptured implants caused their health woes. Women across the U.S. have sued implant makers contending the implants' leaking silicone gel causes tissue disease and shoulder and chest pain.

The trial before Judge Patrick Mizell was another in a long string of courtroom wins for 3M in breast-implant cases, the company said. 3M has won 15 of 16 such cases since 1995 and its only loss is on appeal.

``I believe this signals the beginning of the end of breast implant trials,'' said Dr. Carol Ley, 3M's associate medical director.

``We all sympathize with someone who is ill,'' Ley said. ``However, our knowledge of illness and disease is founded in science, not in what plaintiffs' attorneys and their experts say in court.'' In December, a panel of scientists who studied the health risks of silicone gel at the behest of a federal judge, found little evidence linking the implants to the most serious illnesses found in implant recipients.

The breast implant cases 3M now faces weren't part of a 1995 settlement under which the company, along with fellow implant makers Baxter International Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb, paid millions of dollars to women who claimed their leaky implants harmed them.

The companies paid an average of $26,000 per claim, but some women with more severe injuries received as much as $250,000. Nearly 90 percent of women with claims against St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M, Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter and New York-based Bristol-Myers agreed to be covered by the settlement.

Dow Corning Corp., once the largest implant maker, has agreed to pay $3.2 billion to women claiming breast implant injuries as part of its plan to emerge from bankruptcy court protection.

The company, a joint venture between Corning Inc. and Dow Chemical Co., filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in 1995 because of the onslaught of more than 20,000 breast implant suits. Corning is based in Corning, New York while Dow is headquartered in Midland, Michigan.

3M's shares rose 3/16 to 75 7/16 in afternoon trading today.

15:06:47 02/10/1999

ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb 10 (Reuters) - Minnesota, Mining and Manufacturing Co. said Wednesday that a jury in Harris County, Texas has found the company not guilty on all counts in a breast implant case brought by 3 plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs Kerrie Bonnette, Dorothy Fletcher and Susan Griffith alleged that 3M committed fraud and failed to conduct adequate testing on products. They also claimed mental anguish as a result of having their silicone breast implants removed.

3M said the verdict, in Judge Patrick Mizell's court of the 129th District, Harris County, was delivered on Tuesday.

Billy Ravkind, of Ravkind and Ravkind, one of the attorney's representing the plaintiffs, said they would be appealing key pre-trial rulings on evidence by the judge. These excluded the testimony of expert witness Dr. Pierre Blais along with some other evidence that Ravkind said was important for the plaintiff's case.