France advises 30,000 to have breast implants removed

France's health ministry Friday advised 30,000 women with breast implants made by French firm PIP to have them removed, saying that while there is no proven cancer risk the prostheses could rupture. The government stressed there was no urgency but the advice will add to the concern of tens of thousands of other women around the world who have the same implants made from industrial rather than medical quality silicone. Global police agency Interpol, meanwhile, issued a "red notice" seeking the arrest of Frenchman Jean-Claude Mas, the founder of PIP (Poly Implant Prosthese). Women with PIP implants "do not have a higher risk of cancer than women who have implants manufactured by other firms," a health ministry statement said, but there were "well-established risks of ruptures." French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand called for their removal as a "precautionary measure". State-supported medical insurance will pay for the implants' removal, but only women who received the implants as part of reconstructive surgery, rather than for aesthetic reasons, will have new implants paid for. The total cost for social security is estimated at around 60 million euros ($78 million). The French government advised women with PIP implants to contact their doctor and "a precautionary removal will be offered, even without clinical signs of deterioration of the implant." Any woman who declines the removal must have a breast scan every six months, the ministry added. The now-bankrupt PIP was shut down and its products banned in April last year after it was revealed to have been using non-authorised silicone gel that caused abnormally high implant rupture rates. But Belgium's Drugs and Health Products Agency said women should discuss the preventive removal of their implants with their surgeons, "even without clinical signs of deterioration". Senior French health ministry official Jean-Yves Grall denied the government was being excessively cautious, insisting the recommendation was justified by a five-percent rupture rate. Prosecutors in Marseille, near PIP's home base of Seyne-sur-Mer, have received more than 2,000 complaints from Frenchwomen who received the implants, and have opened a criminal investigation into the firm. Interpol lists Mas on its website as being sought in Costa Rica for offences concerning "life and health". Yves Haddad, a lawyer for the 72-year-old, told AFP his client was prepared to face prosecution, adding: "For the moment there is no evidence that the product can cause illness." According to PIP's 2010 bankruptcy filing in the French city of Toulon, it had exported 84 percent of its annual production of 100,000 implants. Between 2007 and 2009, 50 to 58 percent of its exports went to South American countries including Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, the filing showed. In the same period, 27 to 28 percent of exports went to western European nations including Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany.