A LOCAL court yesterday began hearing a claim for compensation for the effects of a toxic breast-boosting gel - the first since China banned the product last month.

The case - an appeal filed by a woman Zhang Huiqin against an earlier court ruling - could be the first of many against the producers of the hydrophilic polyacrylamide gel, known as PAAG, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

At least 15 people, most of them from Shenzhen and Hong Kong, met Zhang and her lawyer Pu Zhiqiang on Monday to discuss a possible class action, the Post said.

Zhang lodged the suit against a local hospital for irreversible injuries she said were sustained as a result of injections of the gel she received in 2002 as part of forehead augmentation surgery. The gel has since moved around her face and caused her severe pain, she says.

The gel is made by the hospital's parent company Jilin Fuhua and has been used in other augmentation procedures such as breast enlargements, the Post said.

A lower court turned down Zhang's case for compensation from the hospital, prompting her to appeal to the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court.

"I hope this time the court hearing will at least be fair, because the first trial was a nightmare for me. The court didn't give me a chance to prove the injuries were caused by PAAG nor did the judge hear or consider evidence from both sides," she was quoted by the Post as saying.

Jilin Fuhua successfully sued Zhang for defamation after she complained to the media and the government about the harm she suffered.

The State Food and Drug Administration pulled the gel from the market April 30 and withdrew Jilin Fuhua's production license.

The alarm was raised in mid-April by Hong Kong's Consumer Council, which said the gel was cancerous and could cause women to lose their breasts.

The production of PAAG was approved on the mainland in 1997.

Editor: Wing