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Ex-Dow Corning Executive Faults Company's Ethics on Implants.

Published: September 23, 1995

In a new book, a former Dow Corning executive has accused the company of unethical conduct in its handling of the dispute over silicone breast implants.

In the book, "Informed Consent," John E. Swanson, who managed Dow Corning's internal communications and sat on its ethics committee for more than 15 years, depicts himself as viewing the dispute from two sides: as an insider at meetings where company officials decided how to handle the crisis, and as an outsider whose wife, Colleen, received implants, then sued the company after years of illness.

But the company has now suggested that Mr. Swanson played a third role: a would-be extortionist.

Richard A. Hazleton, Dow Corning's chief executive, said yesterday that Mr. Swanson had once suggested that the company pay him for the rights to a book he planned to write on the implant issue.

Mr. Swanson, who retired from the company in 1993, yesterday dismissed the accusation as an unfounded effort to "impugn my character." He never wrote his own book, but told his story to John A. Byrne, a writer for Business Week who is the author of "Informed Consent," published by McGraw-Hill. The subtitle of the book begins, "A story of personal tragedy and corporate betrayal." An excerpt from the book, which was shipped to stores this week, appears in the current issue of Business Week.

Company officials, describing Mr. Swanson as a disgruntled employee, have said that a preview of the first chapter showed it to be biased and to include false statements.

Mr. Swanson said he was not disgruntled but had cooperated with Mr. Byrne to provide a study of corporate ethics. Mr. Byrne and Philip R. Ruppel, publisher for McGraw Hill's business books division, defended the book as "balanced" and "accurate."

The book offers few new details about what Dow Corning knew about the safety of the implants, which have provoked thousands of lawsuits from women who attribute numerous illnesses to leaking silicone.

In one instance, Mr. Swanson says a company official asked that internal reports be destroyed because they showed higher rupture rates for implants than the company acknowledged. But Mr. Hazleton said that the official's request was misunderstood and that there was no attempt to suppress information.

Dow Corning and other implant makers, faced with a tidal wave of lawsuits, agreed to a class-action settlement. But Federal inquiries have not been able to establish a solid link between the devices and serious illness. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the Justice Department have cleared Dow Corning of withholding information.

In offering to sell the rights to a book, Mr. Hazleton said, Mr. Swanson never mentioned a dollar figure. The only support that the offer was made is in a letter from Mr. Hazleton to Mr. Swanson dated Dec. 16, 1993, four months after he retired.