LA POURSUITE DE LA RECHERCHE SUR TOUT INSTRUMENT MÉDICAL Y COMPRIS

L,IMPLANT MAMMAIRE

TO CONTINUE RESEARCH ON ALL MEDICAL DEVICE

INCLUDING BREAST IMPLANT

C’EST LA RESPONSABILITÉ DE NOS GOUVERNEMENTS

DE PROTÉGER LA SANTÉ DES CITOYENS

THIS IS OUR GOUVERMENTS’ RESPONSIBILITY

TO PROTECT ALL CITIZEN’S HEALTH

NOUS N’AVONS PAS LA PREUVE DE LA SÉCURITÉ DES

IMPLANTS MAMMAIRES

WE DO NOT HAVE THE PROOF OF THE SECURITY OF

BREAST IMPLANTS

EN VOICI LA PREUVE QUE LA RECHERCHE EST URGENTE

HERE IS THE PROOF THAT RESEARCH IS URGENT

VISITEZ LES SITES ''INTERNET'' SUIVANTS

L'IMPLANT MAMMAIRE DONNE LA MALADIE

VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEB SITES

BREAST IMPLANT GIVES SICKNESS

CONCLUSION

IAS IMPLANT AWARENESS SOCIETY

102-6086 Boundary Drive West

Surrey, B.C.

V3X 2B3

THE CANADIAN CONNECTION ALBERTA

LEA and DAVID EVANS

2715-124 Street

Edmonton AB

TLJ 4T2

Letter to Canadian Health Minister Alan Rock

From: Lea Evans

Sent: Sunday, October 31, 1999 9:39 PM

The Honourable Alan Rock

Minister of Health

Government of Canada

Dear sir:

We were extremely pleased to hear the announcement of your intention to create a new agency to carry out federally supported health research in Canada. We also hope that your ministry has the good sense to steer the approximately $37 million that is available for new research activities into worthwhile projects.

If you want to spend money "more intelligently and effectively", as your announcement in the Globe & Mail declared, then you will have to get your priorities sorted properly beforehand. My wife and I are convinced that the greatest health problem in Canada is the silicone breast implant disaster; yet, your government has done nothing to help the thousands and thousands of sick women who have become the victims of corporate greed and medical complacency. Now is the time to correct this wrong. When the full extent of the breast implant tragedy is revealed it might be too late to save the ailing provincial healthcare systems. These women, with their silicone-related diseases, physical deformities and unceasing need of medical attention and prescriptions, will probably drain the healthcare systems completely. Your government must act immediately to prevent this happening by providing funds to Canadian researchers who are willing to put in the effort to find a cure for these women.

Throughout the 1990s, and despite your government's neglect, independent researchers have been making some progress in trying to find a cure for the women who are suffering from silicone poisoning. But now even those few conscientious individuals are being systematically silenced. Over the last half dozen years, researchers at numerous Canadian universities have been threatened, intimidated, coerced and, most effectively, denied research funding for silicone breast implant studies. The most recent victim is Dr. Robert Guidoin at Université Laval. We can only deduce from this pitiful situation that university administrations in Canada are terrified that they will lose the huge amounts of cash that are poured into university research annually by the manufacturers and pharmaceuticals, often the makers, now or historically, of silicone breast implants. What better way to reel in these maverick scientists than to threaten the institutions that pay their wages and provide the laboratories.

It is about time that the federal government realized that it has an obligation to Canadian women to publicize the dangers of all forms of breast implants. Your government must respond to this challenge before it is too late. It will be difficult, because the manufacturers of breast implants have already spent millions and millions of dollars on a well-orchestrated campaign of deception and misinformation. They have bought the studies that they need from North American universities to "prove" that their implants are safe, they have paid for public relations firms to spread their lies, they have silenced many of their most vocal critics with money and intimidation, they have confused and made unresponsive a medical community that is painfully reluctant to admit that it has a "brand-new" disease on its hands, and they have deceived what is becoming a disappointingly gullible Canadian media: "The real victim here is Dow Corning. Seriously." (William Thorsell, Editor-in-chief, Globe & Mail, December 5, 1998)!

What these manufacturers have done, and what they are still getting away with, is absolutely criminal. Fortunately, and as you are probably well aware, a RCMP investigation is being carried out into the criminality of the entire breast implant fiasco. It is hoped that this will reveal wrongdoing on the part of the former Conservative federal government that allowed these defective medical devices into the country and will expose the questionable activities of the manufacturers in Canada. My wife and I have been assured that this investigation will continue until it has answers. And so it should, because it is now known that breast implants have an extremely high rupture rate (more than 70%!) and the silicone that they contain migrates to every organ in the body. Moreover, older scientific literature often presented silicone as inert. In more recent studies, however, it has been recognized as a chemically active and demonstrably toxic substance.

As you might have guessed by now, my wife was a recipient of silicone breast implants. What these horrendous devices have done to our lives is immeasurable and unfathomable. If we are typical, then we are saddened that this disaster has been allowed to destroy the peace of mind, the economic livelihood, the domestic harmony, and the medical and psychological well-being of literally thousands and thousands of Canadians.

As taxpayers, my wife and I demand that you recognize the need to carry out the following steps:

* Dr. Robert Guidoin's research program at Université Laval must be reinstated by providing him and his colleagues with sufficient federal funds to reactivate and indeed expand his research activities. The scientific integrity and academic independence of this individual and those like him must be fostered if the true nature of implants and their problems is to be discovered.

* All saline breast implants (a tragedy in the making for the next

generation!) must be removed from the market immediately until they are proved to be safe.

* Federal research funds should be provided to provincial governments throughout Canada to enable them to start up research activities at that level.

* Universities should be provided with enough money to study breast implants without fear of retribution from manufacturers and pharmaceuticals with vested interests.

* Federal research funds should be provided to provincial colleges of physicians and surgeons to create educational programs that will instruct doctors in the dangers of silicone-related diseases.

* The new agency that you envision must be untainted by any industrial money and influence and must demonstrate publicly that it is not a rubber stamp for corporate interests.

We demand that these steps be carried out because your government is obligated to help Canadian women who have suffered so much at the hands of corporate entities that have put profit before any degree of responsibility and thereby brought about a medical disaster. The previous federal administration failed miserably; let's see if your government and you personally have the integrity to right the wrong.

Thank you in advance for your attention to these concerns.

David Evans

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

THE CANADIAN CONNECTION ALBERTA

LORI DOBSON

26 Wentwrth Cr.

Okotoks, Alberta

TOL 1T2

FAX: 1-403-938-4812

NOUS SOMMES LA PREUVE DU DÉSASTRE DE L,IMPLANT MAMMAIRE

WE ARE THE PROOF OF THE BREAST IMPLANT DESASTER

LA RECHERCHE VA NOUS SAUVER LA VIE

RESEARCH WILL SAVE OUR LIFE

DONNEZ-NOUS UN MESSAGE D’ESPOIR

GIVE US A MESSAGE OF HOPE

Les implants qui suivent ont été retirés du corps de notre amie en date du 23/11/1999. The following implants have been explanted from our friend's body of on the 23/11/1999