www.nma.tv/ Are breast implants worth it? Faulty breast implants by French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, are definitely not. To cut costs, the PIP implants use industrial silicone instead of medical-grade silicone and are thus more prone to rupture. Some 40,000 women in the UK and many more world wide have PIP breast implants. Breast augmentation operations are more popular than ever despite the bad economy. In the UK, the vast majority of women undergoing breast augmentation are doing so for cosmetic reasons at private clinics such as Transform and Harley Medical Group clinics. Over the past few years, many clinics have used PIP implants because of their low cost. Now that the risks are known, London has called upon private clinics to foot the bill for replacing the implants. The clinics are reluctant to do so, saying they purchased the implants in good faith and that they bore the European quality assurance CE mark. With French statistics showing a rupture rate of 5.5 percent, women face an unpleasant choice: shell out another £2,800 for new implants, or live with silicone time bombs in their bodies.