Dow Corning, when you hear the name what comes to mind? Silicon gaskets? Personal care products, like lipsticks and sunscreens? How about theme park animatronics? No, for most of us, only one thing comes to mind, breast implants! Dow Chemical was founded in 1943 through a joint partnership between Dow Chemical and Corning GlassWork to develop silicones for commercial applications. Through the mid-fifties, Dow Corning made over 600 products which included lubricants, sealants and resins causing the factory to double in size three times. During this time, the scientists at Dow Corning were thinking of medical applications for silicone products and they developed several prototype implantable devices. In the early 1960’s, Dow Corning engineers developed the first prototype breast implant by encapsulating a firm-density silicone gel within a silicone rubber bag. This implant, named the Cronin implant, became the first to be used in reconstructive surgery involving breast cancer patients who had a mastectomy. Though not required by law to test their products, Dow Corning, exercising good business practice, had an independent laboratory test the safety of its medical grade silicones. The laboratory reported that there was no link to cancer being caused by silicones. They did state that laboratory rats, that had been injected, suffered chronic inflammation of the liver, spleen, pancreas, lymph nodes and other organs due to the silicone becoming lodged in them. Dow Corning was not concerned about this side affect since their implants did not involve a direct injection of silicone fluid. It was in 1975 that Dow Corning, due to two smaller competitors eroding their market share, engineered a new a ...