Exposing the risk of breast implants in Canada

Hill Times Research presents a complete breakdown of the Standing Committee on Health’s study of breast implant oversight, the dangers posed to women and the call for the immediate development of a national breast implant registry.

Decades of ignored concerns
Despite thousands of documented cases of infection, rupture, and breast-implant-associated cancers and autoimmune diseases, women’s suffering has been systematically dismissed. Without mandatory reporting of incidents, it’s impossible to know how many women have been affected and how to hold manufacturers accountable.

What the Health Committee report says
The committee heard from experts from the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Breast Implant Safety Alliance, Dr. Peter Lennox, and Dr. Jan Willem Cohen Tervaert, academics specializing in plastic surgery. Their testimony prompted the committee to call for the creation of a national breast implant registry.

What are we waiting for?
Canada, the only G7 nation without a breast implant registry, has yet to act despite the fact that breast augmentation remains the most popular cosmetic procedure in Canada. Dr. Stephen Nicolaidis, a plastic surgeon, told MPs, ”I’m removing implants causing illness, while colleagues keep inserting them.”

What Canadian women are saying
Personal testimonies unveiled the raw reality of women’s experiences with implants:

“If I had known…”

“I’ve never felt so let down by doctors.”

“Even when you buy a small home appliance, you get a registration card so that you can…be easily contacted in the event of a recall.”