Metal on Metal Hips release two probable carcinogens and fail at rates 300% plus higher than other hip materials/ BMJ

One million Americans have received faulty hips, which continue to be promoted by manufacturers according to the British Medical Journal. The cobalt and chromium they release into local and distant tissues destroy muscle and bone and cause so-called genotoxicity, which may translate into cancer.  Definitely worth a read of the whole article, but excerpts are posted below:

Hundreds of thousands of patients around the world may have been exposed to toxic substances after being implanted with poorly regulated and potentially dangerous hip devices, a BMJ/ BBC Newsnight investigation reveals this week. Despite the fact that these risks have been known and well documented for decades, patients have been kept in the dark about their participation in what has effectively been a large uncontrolled experiment. 

This isn’t the unlucky failure to spot the misdemeanours of one rogue company or the occasional unforeseen breakdown of a small number of devices. It is the inability to prevent a whole class of failing hip implant from being used in hundreds of thousands of people globally—a class of implant that the usually reticent National Joint Registry of England and Wales described recently as a “cause for concern.”1 2 The implants concerned are “metal on metal”—the head at the top and the lining of the cup it fits into are made of cobalt-chromium alloy rather than ceramic or polyethylene—and there are models for both total hip replacement and hip resurfacing...

Hundreds of thousands of patients around the world may have been exposed to toxic substances after being implanted with poorly regulated and potentially dangerous hip devices, a BMJ/ BBC Newsnight investigation reveals this week. Despite the fact that these risks have been known and well documented for decades, patients have been kept in the dark about their participation in what has effectively been a large uncontrolled experiment. 

The manufacturers were aware of the potential for genotoxicity. The BMJ and Newsnight have seen a DePuy internal memo from July 2005, that says: “In addition to inducing potential changes in immune function, there has been concern for some time that wear debris may be carcinogenic. The mechanism is not known and only 24 local malignancies have been reported in patients with joint replacements. Also worrying is the possibility of distant effects. One study suggested a threefold risk of lymphoma and leukaemia 10 years after joint replacement. The metal to metal total hip appears to be quite promising and in the laboratory the data is (sic) definitely in its favour. However, the ultimate test is the long term human experience...”