Silicone

To the Editor.—  I refer to the article, "Injectable Fluid Silicone Therapy— Human Morbidity and Mortality" (234:308, 1975). Considering that my name, as a representative of the Dow Corning Corporation, appears in a footnote as one who "assisted in the preparation of this article," I believe I have an obligation to the medical community to clarify and place in more accurate perspective certain findings and comments expressed by the authors.At the request of two of the authors, we agreed to run an assay for silicon on two different biopsy specimens to verify the presence of silicon. It is important to understand that these two assays showed the parts-per-million presence of silicon, not dimethyl, phenylmethyl, or any other variation of silicone fluid; nor is there any known method to identify a specific brand or manufacturer.The article identified certain materials with incorrect nonproprietary names and Dow Corning trademarks for a