"Code of Silence" by Robert Olexa
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 11:57:06 -0800
From: "Sue Olexa" olexa@pdq.net (by way of ilena rose)
VIA Robert Olexa:
At the height of a scrambling attempt to provide evidence with regards to the safety of breast implants, Dow Corning, and Dow Chemical, were caught altering, and concealing study results. In 1994, Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc, in a peer review audit of a Dow Corning study, discovered the discrepancies, and requested Dow Corning to provide it's office with 100%, or a complete specimen, of its study. An EPL memo states, "The results of the initial slide/block comparison of 20% of the animal revealed several identification discrepancies between the slides and blocks and several slides with missing blocks." In short, the tumors and gross lesions from the diseased specimens submitted to EPL had been trimmed, removed, discarded, and replaced with healthy slides from different subjects.
To label Dow, and Dow sponsored studies such as these, as flawed, is an understatement of monumental proportions, for these studies, and their results are down right criminal acts. The fact is, our government, the FDA, and the medical community as a whole, have foolishly relied upon, and have used the results of studies such as these for issuing a clean bill of health to breast implants. Studies such as these have been identified as conclusive evidence of breast implant safety, and have been passed on to the future victims of the "breast implant revolving door." Studies such as these have been reported to millions of people through the information industry, as proof of no harm. And studies such as these have perpetuated the lie, and concealed the devastating effects that breast implants have inflicted upon us all.To conceal the fact, as in this instance, that a product causes tumors when implanted in a subject, or the human body, and attempt to indicate otherwise, is a criminal act. To use knowingly flawed, and falsified data while in a position to inform of the adverse health effects, and fail to do so, is a criminal act. To conceal the fact, or suggest by an act of inaction, that tumors are an acceptable consequence for allowing breast implants to stay on the market, is a criminal act. To the breast implant manufactures, to the plastic surgeon community, and to the FDA, "your problem", is not going away. Today's evidence clearly indicates, and unveils this act, as nothing less than a criminal act of negligence, by omission.
How can companies, which have been required, for over 30 years, to supply the FDA with evidence to its product safety, and in clear violation of honesty, duty and honor, still be allowed to conduct unsupervised studies? How can a "family," led by a company, with an alarmingly harmful history, concealed, and protected by a "code of silence", the likes of which have never been witnessed, have been allowed to operate unpunished, for so many years? These questions, which are now "our problem," have not gone away, and must be answered. To its credit, Dow Corning disciplined the head of its department "responsible" for this act, by forcing him into early retirement after 20 years of dedicated service. Historically, a company's policy, practice, and behavior, are always the libel party, not the employee, and unfortunately the wrong suspect for this act was singled out, and punished. In truth, Dow Chemical should have been "terminated," and forced into retirement, by our government, and this "code of silence" exposed for what it truly is … a criminal act. Opinion stated by: Robert Olexa Reference: Smoke and Fire Documents 561 & 562
