Go on-line and sign up for the Plastic Assets credit card and you'll be rewarded with a free set of breast implants. “Invest in your breasts!” shouts the Web site (http://www.pantyraiders.org/plasticassets/). Besides having bigger, better boobs, every time you use the card you'll earn bonus points that can be put toward procedures like tummy tucks or liposuction.

Head to the Apply Now section and up pops a hot-pink banner that reads: “DECEPTION! comes in many forms... Click here for what they don't tell you about breast implants.”

Yes, the Plastic Assets site is a hoax, one conjured up by Ottawa-based journalist and media critic Shari Graydon. With the help of New York–based Web designers Katie Marsh and Leba Haber Rubinoff (who call themselves the Panty Raiders), Graydon set out to draw attention to the “devastating impact” of implants, consequences she says plastic surgeons minimize and news outlets largely ignore. Graydon—who was in Vancouver on May 11 to give a public presentation about Plastic Assets—says she was surprised that so many people failed to catch onto the project's phoniness.

“I thought there were enough clues that most critically minded people would be able to figure it out,” Graydon told the Straight by phone, pointing to giveaways like the Bank of National Credit, which doesn't exist, and the testimonial of a fictitious father saying he knows the “power breasts can have” and wanted his daughter to have the best body possible before heading off to Yale.

“Even after people filled out the application and couldn't get it to submit, we had about 60 women contact us by e-mail who were desperate, saying, ‘Help; why can't I sign up?'….Many of the women were college-educated, professionals, women doing grad work.

“The response says so much about the world we live in,” she added.

Other reactions troubled Graydon.

Many journalists, for instance, didn't realize the site was bogus, said Graydon, who also speaks about media literacy. And when reporters discovered that its purpose was to expose the underreported health impacts of breast implants, most were no longer interested in pursuing the story.

The list of those potential health consequences is extensive.

According to Health Canada, scar tissue surrounding the implant can harden and cause severe pain or sensitivity. Breast cancer can be more difficult to detect in women with implants than in those without. Implants may interfere with the ability to produce breast milk or to breast-feed. Because implants have to be replaced every seven to 15 years, multiple operations can cause irreversible damage, like dimpling or wrinkling.

A study published in the December 2001 issue of Epidemiology found that women with breast implants were more likely to die from brain tumours, lung cancer, and suicide compared with other plastic-surgery patients.

In her 2003 study for the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health—called Health Care Utilization Among Women Who Have Undergone Breast Implant Surgery—Aleina Tweed pointed to the risks that accompany any surgery, such as infection, hemorrhage, and thrombosis. Then there are local complications, like implant deflation, leakage, and rupture, as well as nipple discharge. Although a causal link hasn't been proven, there are possible systemic problems, including fibromyalgialike disorders, auto- immune diseases, and chronic respiratory problems. Her research found that women with implants were more than four times as likely to be hospitalized as those without.

The Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons (www.plasticsurgery.ca/) notes on its Web site that in general, the larger the implant the greater the risk of complications.

Proponents of breast implants say that women who are pleased with the results have better self-esteem and improved quality of life. Women say they feel sexier, happier, and more confident than before.

According to Tweed's study, about 80 percent of breast-implant surgeries are done for cosmetic reasons. In B.C., approximately 25,000 women have had the operation. The procedure isn't covered by provincial health insurance except when reconstruction follows a mastectomy. The cost of augmentation is anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000, according to Graydon, and replacement or removal costs more. Health-insurance companies don't pay to take out implants, even if they are leaking or deflated.

Only saline-filled implants are licensed for sale in Canada, but women can get the silicone gel–filled ones by applying to Health Canada's medical-devices bureau. Saline implants (which are in a silicone bag) have never been reviewed for safety by Health Canada. They were introduced before 1982, when the federal body amended regulations requiring manufacturers to provide evidence that the devices are safe.

Health Canada is currently reviewing applications by two California companies to sell silicone gel–filled implants in this country. In September, the federal organization gathered an expert panel to get input from manufacturers, consumers, and the public.

Among the panel's recommendations was that surgeons be able to identify patients with body-dysmorphic disorder, an obsessive preoccupation with a perceived physical flaw that impairs daily functioning. Such women, as well as those with eating disorders or clinical depression, should seek psychiatric treatment and postpone surgery.

With so many potential problems that come with cosmetic augmentation, many women's groups are still calling on the federal government to establish a national registry that would enable health officials to contact people whose implants may pose a health risk and allow researchers to study the long-term effects of implants. Legislation to do so was introduced by the federal New Democrats in 2004 but got scrapped with the last election.

Graydon, meanwhile, stressed that she doesn't judge women who opt to have implants, but she does want them to make an educated decision.

“It's nice to feel attractive. The problem is we have increasingly distorted notions of what is sexy, what is desirable,” she explained, adding that she remembers a conversation she had with a woman who had had implants. “She said, ‘I don't want to look like Pamela Anderson. I just want to look normal.' Normal now includes foreign objects being implanted in our chest cavity.”