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© AFP Photo/Sebastien NogierA picture taken on January 1 in Saint Raphael, southeastern France, shows a breast implant produced by the implant manufacturer Poly Implant Prothese company (PIP).
Around 4,500 French-made breast implants at the center of a scandal over their rupture risks were used in Mexico for 16 years, with no serious problems reported, according to plastic surgeons here.

"We've calculated that around 4,500 implants of the PIP (Poly Implant Prothese) brand have been inserted, that's our first estimate. We've had no reports of fatalities, cancer or problems among patients," said Alejandro Duarte, president of the Mexican Association of Plastic Surgery.

Duarte called for women with the implants to visit a doctor, without panic.

"We're not going to take the attitude of other countries like France or Venezuela which fell into panic or hysteria," Duarte told a news conference late Wednesday.

"If the implants are in a good state, it's not necessary to remove them, as some European countries have demanded."

A health scare erupted when authorities in France last month advised 30,000 women with the implants produced by the now-bankrupt PIP to have them removed.

PIP was shut down and its products banned in April 2010 after it was revealed to have been using non-authorized, sub-standard silicone gel that caused abnormally high implant rupture rates.

The implants were used in Mexico between 1994 and February 2010.

Around 84 percent of the implants made in France by PIP were exported, particularly to Latin America, Spain and Britain.