Court rejects breast-implant class action

TORONTO, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- An Ontario appeals court Tuesday rejected a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government by thousands of women whose silicone breast implants ruptured.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario also tossed out a separate class action by people whose jaw implants disintegrated.

Manufacturers, not government officials, are responsible for product safety and reliability, the court said in both instances.

In the breast implant lawsuit, some 29,500 women from across the country faulted Health Canada for letting Dow Corning Corp. and other manufacturers market the implants without properly assessing their reliability, The Globe and Mail reported.

In the jaw-implant case, thousands of people suffering chronic pain argued Health Canada had failed to issue warnings or take action to get the jaw implants off the market -- even though the plaintiffs acknowledged being told the implants could break down and "cannibalize" bone and soft tissue at the base of their skull, the newspaper said.

"The job of government is to govern and, in the course of doing so, to make broad-based policy decisions for the benefit of the public collectively, even if those decisions may not have positive implications for all individuals," Justice Susan Lang wrote for the three-judge panel.