EU mulls microchips on breast implants, but PIP study inconclusive

Feb 2, 2012, 14:50 GMT

Brussels - The European Union's executive is considering a requirement to equip breast implants with microchips as part of a safety review following an international health scare, officials said Thursday.

Meanwhile, a study by EU experts said there was not enough evidence to say whether women who received implants from French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) were at greater risk of health problems than women who received other implants.

Since it was discovered that PIP used industrial silicone for its breast implants, in order to cut costs, authorities around the world have been scrambling to determine health risks for patients.

'The anxieties generated by this PIP affair have shown that the traceability of these products could be improved,' Frederic Vincent, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, told reporters in Brussels.

He mentioned that Denmark was quickly able to identify patients with PIP implants, as it had a national register, while other countries did not.

'One of the options which the European Commission is exploring is the introduction of a so-called a UDI - Unique Device Identifier - which ... could be a microchip,' Vincent explained.

A similar system is already in place in the United States.

Meanwhile, EU experts from the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) delivered their first, inconclusive, report on the dangers posed by PIP breast implants.

There was 'insufficient evidence to warrant a conclusion that women with PIP silicone breast implants have a greater risk to their health than women with breast implants from other manufacturers,' SCENIHR said.

The commission asked the committee to keep exploring the issue, Vincent said.

So far, only five EU member states - Germany, France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Belgium - have recommended the removal of PIP implants, the spokesman indicated.

According to estimates, around 400,000 PIP implants were sold worldwide, including 40,000 in Britain, 30,000 in France, 10,000 in Spain and 7,500 in Germany, the commission said.