Breast implant safety fears spread

FEARS over the safety of silicone breast implants made by a now defunct French firm spread to Australia, South America and across Europe, as French officials prepared to decide if thousands of women should have their implants surgically removed.

The silicone gel implants, made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) which was shut down in 2010, appear to have an unusually high rupture rate and have sparked an investigation in France into possible links to cancer.

Some 300,000 PIP