French police say a former top executive of a defunct breast implant company at the center of a health scandal has been arrested.

Officials say Jean-Claude Mas of Poly Implant Prothese was taken into custody early Thursday at his home in southern France.

The arrest was made in connection with an investigation into possible charges of involuntary manslaughter and causing injury opened by prosecutors in the southern port city of Marseilles.

A second Poly Implant Prothese executive, Claude Couty, also was detained in the probe.

The company closed in 2010 after it was forced to take the implants off the market.

Health regulators discovered PIP was using a non-medical grade of silicone in the implants that were prone to leaking.

Several countries across Europe and the United States issued alerts about the tens of thousands implants exported to more than 60 countries.

Britain’s government has said it sees no need for the routine removal of breast implants, despite an international scare over PIP’s use of industrial, rather than medical, silicone.

France, Belgium, the Czech Republic and other nations have recommended their citizens have the implants removed or monitored, saying the implants with the industrial silicone are more likely to rupture.

French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand has called for the European Union to impose stiffer rules on medical devices, including breast implants.