YS | “deductible for

Breast implants:

THERE IS truth to be
found on mudguards.

Catherine

JUST ADD WATER

The other day I was driving
along one of the major arteries of
our metropolis when a shiny new
pickup cruised by me in the pass-
ing lane.

My eyes were drawn to some-
thing silver on the mudguards of
the truck, On each guard was a
cut-out of a cowgirl — with a tiny
waist and hips and a bust big
enough to drive any cowboy
crazy.
There she was, the perfect

woman, right there on th

mudguards. ‘

You could easily dismiss images
of busty wenches as trivial if it
weren’t for the latest health crisis
now facing women.

It’s a familiar tale of mind-
numbing corporate callousness on
the part of Dow Corning Corp.,'
one of the world’s largest manu-
facturers of silicone-gel breast
implants. And it’s the story of the
physical pain and mental anguish
of women who believed they were
getting a safe product.

From internal company docu-
ments released reluctantly by Dow
Corning, we know that company
employees suspected as early as
1971 that there was insufficient
scientific data to guarantee the
safety of the implants.

Keith McKennon, Dow Corn-
ing’s new chief executive, explain-
ed his company's behavior this
way: “Dow Corning must say,
“Gee, we didn’t do everything
perfect, and if we were able to do
it over, we would perhaps do it _
differently.” °°

I'm sure those words were com-
forting to women who have been
left with weirdly shaped or rock-
hard breasts after a stream of
operations to correct an initial
implant.

They’re women like Jenny
Jones, the Canadian-born
Chicago talk show host who has
had five sets of implants in a des-
perate effort to have something

MAILBOX

Column wide of mark

on auto repair figures

Dear Editor:
The Automotive Retailers
' Association represents businesses

‘in the automotive service and

repair industry throughout B.C.,

including over 300 collision repair

facilities. We are recognized as the
’ legitimate voice of the industry

and negotiate with the Insurance

Corporation of British Columbia

(ICBC) on an ongoing basis on
j .issues such as labor and material
, Charges.

We feel strongly that in Doug
Collins’ March 4 column com-
ments were made with no research
and that he unfairly intimated that

members are ‘‘gouging’’
ICBC.

Over 55% of the cost of claims
‘to ICBC is for bodily injury, not
for material damage. This is in
contrast to many other jurisdic-
tions in both Canada and the U.S.
which have much lower bodily in-
jury quotients. Those bodily inju-
fy awards are eventually deter-

“ mined by the courts and are, for
the most part, out of ICBC’s con-
trol.

Collision coverage premiums,

should Mr. Collins care to check, -

have been reduced for 1992, not
increased. Here are three examples
_ (the Mazda and Cadillac are my
own velricles, and I chose the
-Honda because of its popularity):
oR 199:

: 2 1991
1978 Cadillac Seville $247 $252
1988 Mazda Pickup 319 327
1991 Honda Accord 524 541
All examples are for $100
the collision
coverage only. ,
- There are several errors and
omissions in Mr. Collins’ example
repair. The labor rate for the
whole province on ICBC passen-
ger car repairs was $45.25 per
hour in 1991, As far as ‘‘generosi-
ty”? is concerned, ICBC’s respon-
a sibility is to put the vehicle back
§ into its pre-accident condition.
That means repairing all of the
related damage.

a

The discrepancy could be a
result of several factors, one of
which may be the accuracy of the
repair shop’s first estimate. There
may have been hidden damage
which could only have been
discovered upon disassembly.

If the repair shop felt that they
were being paid for work that was
unnecessary, they should have
pointed this out to ICBC and had
the items deleted,

Our member collision repairers
are by no means being over-
compensated for their work.
Hourly shop rates for mechanical
tepairs in dealerships are substan-
tially higher — in most cases they
charge from $65 to $75 per hour.
Many collision shops are finding it

very difficult to survive at the -

present ICBC rate of $47.40, as
our labor costs are essentially the
same as the dealerships.

ICBC exerts as much control
over the industry as possible —
even to the extent of fixing the
profit shops make on parts and
sublet items. Materials used are a
“no profit’? item, and sometimes
even result in a loss.

The $63 per hour figure quoted
is what ICBC would have paid in
1991 for the labor plus materials
used — and applies to painting
processes only.

The rate for repair work was

* $48.05 per hour, which included

the body repair materials. (The
dealership mechanical rates quoted
above do not include any materi-
als used.)

We are constantly bargaining
with the insurance corporation.
They rightfully try to reduce their
cost as much as possible and we,
as an industry, must negotiate as

hard as we can to get increases‘

required to keep up with inflation
and technological change.

Mac Fish
Division Liaison
Automotive Retailers Association

Burnaby

INSIGHTS

Friday, March 20, 1992 - North Shore News — 7

a modern female tragedy

close to normal breasts.

Jones’ breasts are scarred and
so hard she doesn’t need to wear a
bra. She has no feeling in her
breasts.

Closer to home there’s Delta
resident Linda Wilson, who has
had nine operations and been
hospitalized five additional times
for infection.

Wilson, who had a mastectomy,
had the extremely bad luck to
have Meme as her first set of im-
plants. Manufactured by
Surgiteck, the Meme implant
features a polyurethane foam shell
that has begun to disintegrate in a
matter of weeks in some women
(as it did in Linda Wilson).

After strong pressure from the
American Foud and Drug Ad-
ministration, Surgiteck voluntarily
withdrew the implant in April
1991.

Just Wilson’s bad luck again
that her Meme implants were
replaced with the Dow Corning
models.

Wilson decided not to remain a

victim. She helped form the I
Know/Je Sais support group for
women who have problems with
breast implants. She has also
launched suits against Surgiteck
and Dow Corning.

Nobody really knows the per-
centage of women who have been
or could be adversely affected by
silicone-ge! implants. Though
North Shore plastic surgeon. Dr.
Denis Morris maintains the per-
centage of problems with gel im-
plants is small, he acknowledges:
‘*We don’t know the long-term
effects of loose silicone in the
body from ge! implants.**

Plastic surgeons in B.C. have
agreed to cease doing gel implants
pending a final FDA (Food and
Drug Administration) ruling, ex-
pected before the end of April.

It’s interesting Linda Wilson
believes that, despite the implant
horror stories, many women will
still want breast augmentation
surgery.

In fact, 80% of breast implant
recipients have the surgery purely

for cosmetic purposes. Among
this group, Dr. Morris estimates
that in his practice over 90%
aren't pressured into the surgery
by a partner, but are doing it for
increased self-esteem.

I’m not about to knock a
woman who is seeking self-
esteem. But surely we have to
question whether potentially dan-
gerous invasive surgery is the best
way to feel good about ourselves.

We must also question a society
that suggests to women it’s
desirable, even preferable, to have
one type of breast — full, firm
and perky — into middle age.

We must ask ourselves how we
reached a stage when the natural
drooping of the female breast is
considered undesirable, even ugly.

in her book The Beauty Myth,
author Naomi Woif reports that a
current trend in the United States
is for graduating daughters to get
breast implant surgery while boys
get a trip to Europe.

Some people might call this
sick. I'll call it iragic.

} i
spiel! fate jew

Many factors affect repair costs

Dear Editor: .

Doug Collins raised some inter-
esting points in his March 4 col-
umn (‘‘Is ICBC largesse driving
car insurance rates up?’’) to which
we would like to respond.

We had ICBC’s Material Dam-
age Research group examine Mr.
and Mrs. Butler’s claim file to see
why our repair estimate was
higher than the one prepared by
the auto repair shop in Princeton.

The body shep’s estimate did
not go into very much detail, but
ICBC's estimator identified a
number of needed parts and
repairs that they appear to have
missed. The additional items in-
cluded the gas tank, damaged
when the vehicle slid backward off
the snow-packed road into a
ditch.

ICBC’s labor rates are negoti-
ated with the auto repair industry.
Our rate for mechanical repairs is
$48.05 per hour, the same as that

quoted by the shop. Body and
paint work is more expensive and
the rate allowed is $63 per hour.

The area in which the two
estimates differed most was in
body work and painting, and
therein lies the main reason for
the increased repair costs.

The body shop quote appeared
to be based on four hours’ work
to repair and repaint two panels.
ICBC found far more body dam-
age, and 27.6 hours was required
to properly repair the vehicle.

It is quite common for shops to
discover additional ac-
cident-related damage once work
gets under way.

Another factor affecting the
cost of repairs is an. insurance
company’s obligation to return an
individual’s property (home, boat,
car, etc.) to its condition prior to
the loss. This prescribes the parts
and* repair methods used. An
owner faced with paying for

repairs could opt for a lower
estimate rather than fully restore
the property to its pre-accident
condition.

Mr. Collins also commented on
the length of time ICBC’s Dis-
count Review Committee takes to
determine whether a claim such as
the Butlers’ would result in the-
loss of claim rated scale discounts.
While our notification letter in-
dicates that the review could take
10 to 12 weeks, most are com-
pleted in two or three weeks.

Finally, we would like to assure
Doug Collins that, as a journalist
dealing with an ICBC matter, he
can expect our full cooperation
should an issue such as this one
arise in the future.

Ken Hardie

Manager, Media Relations
Public Information Department
Insurance Corporation of British
Columbia