France's health minister has recommended that tens of thousands of woman with a faulty brand of breast implants have them removed at the government's expense.

“As a preventive measure not of an urgent nature, [French authorities] recommend the removal of these implants, even those not showing signs of deterioration,” Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said in a statement.

The implants sparked a scare in France after a 53-year-old woman with the implants died of a rare form of breast lymphoma.

However, Bertrand said a team of health experts had determined that there was “no increased risk of cancer currently in women wearing the PIP (Poly Implant Prothese) brand compared with other implants.” At the same time, their studies did show that there was a risk that they could rupture and leak a substandard type of silicone gel.

Made on the cheap

An estimated 30,000 women in France have PIP implants and about 2,000 of them have filed legal complaints against the company; it was found to have been using a cheaper, industrial silicone instead of a more expensive silicone that is approved for medical use. The industrial silicone has been blamed in the cases in which the implants have leaked. The company is believed to have saved up to one million euros ($1.3 million) by using the cheaper silicone.

As many as 300,000 women worldwide are believed to have the implants and health authorities in other European and South American countries were said to be closely monitoring how Paris deals with the situation.

The French government ordered PIP to cease production of the implants last year and the company, which is based in the south of the country, was being liquidated.

Author: Chuck Penfold (AP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Gabriel Borrud