3: History of silicone breast implant litigation in the United States ^18,19

1977: Several cases of ruptured prostheses went to court and settlements of above US$170 000 were awarded.

1982: San Francisco lawyers seized upon 800 pages of Dow Corning internal documents which purported to show that basic work on safety and bodily reaction to long-term silicone implantation had still not been performed by the company. They claimed that complaints from doctors and agents of the company on "bleeding" and a high rate of contracture had not been adequately addressed. A plaintiff with a ruptured implant and chronic fatigue was awarded US$1.7 million, of which US$1.5 million was "punitive".

1988: Another plaintiff, who had ruptured implants and joint pains, was awarded US$7.34 million, of which US$6.5 million was punitive. The trial received television coverage.

1990: Silicone implant support groups spring up in response to increased publicity in the media that breast implants caused disease.

1991: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Dr David Kessler, announced a moratorium on the use of silicone gel implants. He pointed out that the ban was not because implants had been found dangerous, but because they had not been found safe. This reassurance did nothing to quell the tide of public fear as women with a variety of illnesses seized the opportunity to claim for damages; the number of lawsuits against Dow Corning rapidly increased from 100 to over 1000.

1992: A plaintiffs' steering committee was established in Cincinatti by the Multidistrict Litigation Panel (a panel of judges who decide whether a particular group of similar cases has become so unwieldy that it needs to be "consolidated" in one courtroom) and consisted of lawyers specialising in class actions and "mass torts". The committee negotiated with Dow Corning, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Baxter-3M, who agreed to establish a fund of US$4.25 billion (of which 25% apparently would go to the lawyers) over a 30-year period to cover class-action claims.

1992: Texas lawyers were preparing large numbers of cases for individual trials in the State court. A plaintiff with ruptured prostheses and flu-like symptoms was awarded US$25 million. The case was tried with full television coverage, supplemented by talk-back on the case during court recesses. The judgment produced an avalanche of potential litigants. There was still no scientific evidence that suggested a link between silicone breast implants and systemic disease of any kind.

1994: There were 200 000 claimants to the class action -- by May 1995, this number had risen to 480 000 claimants.

1995-1996: Faced with such massive class action from Cincinatti and thousands of individual actions from Texas, Dow Corning filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Legal action began against its parent company, Dow Chemical.

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