Brussels, 21/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 21 March, the MEPs of the committee on environment and health of the European Parliament held a debate on a resolution on the breast implants affair, co-drafted by MEPs Gilles Pargneaux (S&D, France) and Linda McAvan (S&D, UK). This resolution will be adopted by the parliamentary committee on 25 April and by next June's plenary session.
The resolution calls on the European Commission and the member states to reinforce their cooperation, particularly in terms of communication and control, to prevent an incident of this type from happening again. “The Commission is about to review the legal framework on medical devices, and it should include measures to avoid any existing (legal) loopholes. It is not just about breast implants, there have also been problems recently with prosthetic hips, making the revision of the legislation all the more urgent”, said McAvan. The MEPs will make several suggestions to the Commission for the revision, such as creating a passport at the level of all member states for people receiving implants or prostheses which fulfil the characteristic principles of medical devices, and providing information on their potential effects on health. For their part, the member states are called on to improve the legislation on advertising for cosmetic implants. “We want to ensure that patients are fully aware of the risks. We have come to realise that many women who have had (breast) surgery did not know that in some cases, these implants had to be replaced after a certain period of time”, stressed McAvan. The co-rapporteurs recommend that a compulsory national implant register be set up in each member state and call for in-depth and frequent unannounced inspections, also stressing the need for a collective recourse system. (IL/transl.fl)