January 4, 2012

Keeping Abreast of the Situation

Several years ago, Toyota became public enemy number 1. It was all over the news in the US and here, but not so much in Europe for some reason. In case you missed it, here is a quick re-cap.


In 2009 Mark Sayler and his family were tragically killed when the accelerator stuck in a loan Lexus ES 350. This kicked off a huge recall of potentially affected vehicles worldwide. This amounted to 1.8 million vehicles in Europe alone.

Now, this is a vast amount of vehicles to be checked and modified if required. Then there is the administration side to consider, the details of these cars had to be submitted to Toyota on the same day so that they could be taken of the recall list.

Incidentally the case involving the death of Mark Sayler was not due to anything Toyota had done, it was not a manufacturing defect.

So, consider this, as with any motor manufacturer, if they think for one second that something they have made could cause death or injury all affected vehicles are brought back to the dealer to check for the fault. The owner of the car is reimbursed in some way, usually with Toyota it is Marks and Spencers vouchers, fuel, a car care kit or the like.

Which brings me to boobs.

Now, taking into account what the motor industry does consider what happens when a manufacturer of fake boobs has a manufacturing defect.....

The story goes that Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP) somehow filled breast implants with industrial grade silicone rather than medical grade. Which means that potentially somewhere around 300,000 to 400,000 women in 65 countries could have dodgy boobs that could kill them. Incidentally PIP was shut down in 2010.

With an estimated 40,000 women in the UK who have PIP implants what are the authorities doing about it?

Not enough in my opinion.

In France, the government have recommended that everyone with these implants have them removed because there is a chance of rupture. In the UK? Andrew Lansley our health secretary is still pondering the situation.

I admit that different authorities are giving different percentages for chance of failure this being anywhere between 1% and 7%.

That's not really the point that I'm making.

Surely any failure is a failure and the fact that you could have industrial grade silicone leaking out and into your bloodstream isn't a good thing?

Ask yourself, what is more important, your car or your health?