Silicone Implants

WASHINGTON -- Silicone gel breast implants, one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries in the United States, will be available only to a limited number of women who will test their safety, FDA Commissioner David Kessler is to announce today.Breast cancer patients and those disfigured by birth defects or injuries will have the best chance to obtain the implants if their doctor is convinced it is necessary for their well-being, a Food and Drug Administration official familiar with the plan said.

I AM THE proud and happy owner of two very nice, soft, untroublesome saline-filled breast implants that were inserted in front of my chest wall a few years ago after my second mastectomy.Sadly, many women think the implant choice is between silicone or nothing, when they have a perfectly good alternative in saline.I know something about how women feel about losing a breast. I know that some women, hearing of the dangers of silicone implants and not being aware of a good alternative, will avoid mammography, self-examinations, visits to their physicians -- actions that could save their lives.

LONDON -- Britain's chief medical officer has told doctors that they can continue to use silicone gel breast implants despite a temporary suspension of the procedure in the United States.Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended a 45-day moratorium on the supply or use of silicone gel implants while new information questioning their safety is evaluated. Concerns focus on the possibility of reactions in the immune system caused by a leakage of silicone."I understand the concerns and anxiety felt by women over silicone gel breast implants," said Dr. Kenneth Calman, the Department of Health's chief medical officer.

Paid LapdogsEditor: My thanks to Sun reporters David Conn and C. Fraser Smith. In their articles of Jan. 19, they taught me a great deal about why we have a state budget crisis.Mr. Conn's business page article on Maryland's prevailing wage law was a real eye opener. Just because our legislators are the lapdogs of organized labor, we taxpayers pay about $50 million extra each year for state buildings and roads. You could buy a lot of books or pay a lot of teachers with that money.And Mr. Smith's piece on the ''GOP renegades'' was a discouraging look inside Annapolis politics.

Boston. -- It is a story that might have sprung full- blown from the deep well of conspiracy fantasies. All the princes of darkness were there at the beginning of the Saga of Silicone. Racism. Sexism. Imperialism. Even the Military-Industrial Complex.Silicone made its entry into the female body almost 50 years ago, because Japanese women were trying to attract American soldiers. The conquerors liked bigger breasts and so industrial strength transformer coolant was injected directly into these women.

Dr. David Kessler, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, made a reasoned move when he asked for a moratorium on silicone breast implant surgery. It has been a decade since the FDA first expressed skepticism about the safety of these implants, but nothing substantive has been done.Though the FDA recognized silicone implants as possible health risks in 1981, the government was gripped for a decade by a fervent commitment to deregulation, and the agency, under Reagan-appointee Frank Young -- dragged its feet.

Lucille Bodke of Glen Burnie blames her stiff joints, "rock-hard" breasts and inability to stretch without searing pain to leakage of the silicone breast implants she received 13 years ago after having both breasts removed due to a cyst disorder.The 58-year-old woman has nothing good to say about the implants. But she declared yesterday "one of the greatest days" of her life after hearing that FDA Commissioner David Kessler had asked plastic surgeons to stop inserting the gel implants until he could resolve concerns about their safety.

Mary Romano loves her breast implants -- they're wonderful, she says. When Jackie Clark talks about hers, though, she talks about "silicone nightmares.""Seeing how beautiful these silicone implants can be, I say to other women, 'If you can afford it, go ahead and do it,' " said Ms. Romano, 30. Two years ago, the Arnold woman had one implant inserted after a mastectomy and a second put in the other side -- "saggy and stretched after two children" -- so that it would match.But Ms. Clark, 38, an Alexandria, Va., woman who had her breasts enhanced for cosmetic reasons, later had the implants removed because she was convinced they were causing her serious health problems.

Boston -- I arrived at adolescence in the era of training bras and Angora sweaters. I never did figure out what these bras were training us for -- womanhood? the Great American Breast Fetish? -- but now I look back to that era, reluctantly, as the good old days.Thirty years ago we gossiped about which of the girls in our class and our Seventeen magazines were wearing falsies under their blouses. Now we gossip about which of the Miss America contestants and People magazine subjects are wearing falsies under their skin.