All women with faulty breast implants should have them removed given the uncertainty and lack of knowledge about the extent of the problems, a leading surgeon warned.

It was revealed on Monday that French breast implant manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) used a fuel additive in its now-banned implants which the company knew were defective as early as 2005.

France’s RTL radio said it obtained an exact breakdown of the materials used in the faulty implants, including Baysilone, Silopren and Rhodorsil, all of which are industrial products never tested or approved for clinical use.

The products, used in the oil or rubber industries, allegedly contributed to the silicone gel implants having a high rupture rate.

About 40,000 British women are thought to have received the silicone implants made by (PIP).

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has said the risk of rupture is only one per cent, but a cosmetic surgery chain told ministers privately that the figure could be as high as seven or eight per cent.

“Even with a very low rupture rate, we would want to see most implants removed on a staged basis,” said Tim Goodacre, president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, and a member of the British government-commissioned panel investigating the scandal.

“If you believe a device is faulty, I think this would be true in your car or any other object that you buy, you would want to have that replaced on a staged basis.

“Certainly this is a very much higher rupture rate than we would consider acceptable at all. Good implants put in by reputable people really have an extraordinarily low failure rate so this is quite out of the ordinary.”

Mr Goodacre stressed that there was “no immediate cause for concern” as there was no cancer risk and no evidence of “major health detriment”.

But he added: “Given the fact that there is a degree of uncertainty and lack of knowledge in this, we really are recommending that all implants do come out.”

The French authorities shut down PIP last year after the company was found to be using cheaper industrial silicone.

Paris has since recommended that women have the prosthetics removed because of fears over rupture.

In the UK, the MHRA has said that removal is not necessary.

But Health Secretary Andrew Lansley launched a review of the risks from faulty breast implants after receiving new evidence from major cosmetic surgery firm Transform.

NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh is in charge of the review.

The MHRA will also be conducting an audit of evidence to resolve concerns about the “content and quality of the data that cosmetic surgery providers are sharing with the regulator”.

Tory MP Stephen Dorrell, chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, said the cost of removing implants should be recovered from those who provided “sub-standard products”.

“The first responsibility here would rest on those who were engaged in care that hasn’t met proper standards, so the first responsibility rests on them,” he told The World At One.

“Having said that, clearly if there is a health issue involved then ultimately the NHS exists to provide health assurance for all patients in the UK.

“But I think it would be entirely reasonable to seek to recover some of this cost off those who have provided sub-standard products.”

Implants can be traced back through history

• A breast implant is a medical prosthesis used to correct the size, form and feel of a woman’s breasts in post–mastectomy breast reconstruction; for correcting congenital defects and deformities of the chest wall; for aesthetic breast augmentation; and for creating breasts in the male-to-female transsexual patient.

• Implants have been used since the late 19th century, to surgically augment the size and shape of a woman’s breast and enhance the feel. In 1889, surgeon Robert Gersuny experimented with paraffin injections, with disastrous results.

• From the first half of the 20th century, physicians used other substances as breast fillers, including ivory, glass balls, ground rubber, ox cartilage, Terylene wool and polyethylene chips, polyether foam sponge, polyethylene tape wound into a ball and polyster.

• The American plastic surgeons Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow, and the Dow Corning Corporation, developed the first silicone breast prosthesis in 1961.

• There are three types of breast implants used for mammoplasty, breast reconstruction and breast augmentation procedures: saline implant filled with sterile saline solution; silicone implant filled with viscous silicone gel; and alternative-compostion im-plant with miscellaneousfillers (e.g. soy oil) that are no longer manufactured.

• Complications arising from breast augmentation include breast pain, altered sensation, impeded breast-feeding function, visible wrinkling, asymmetry, thinning of the breast tissue, and symmastia, the “bread loafing” that interrupts the natural plane between the breasts.