Blood banks must stop
relying on Skid Row bums
BY STUART AUERBACH
(C) 1973. The Washington Past
WASHINGTON — Hie federal govern
ment has warned the nation’s bloodbanks
to develop a system to provide enough safe
blood for all Americans without buying it
from skid row bums, a major source of
disease in blood transfusions.
If not. federal officials told a White
House health seminar this month the
Administration will seek legislation set
ting up a nationalized Mood supply system.
“For too long we have endured our
present haphazard nonsystem of blood
supply, with its sporadic shortages across
the country,’’ said Dr. Henry Simmons,
deputy assistant Secretary of Health in the
Department of Health Education and
Welfare. “There is no overall shortage of
blood, just widespread mismanagment of
this vital national resource ”
The new national blood policy was
revealed by HEW Secretary Caspar
Weinberger, who said it is aimed at
creating “an all-voluntary system of blood
. . . (which) would go far toward
eliminating the threat of hepatitis trans
mitted by blood from unhealthy donors."
About 16 per cent of the nearly 9 million
pints of blood collected each year is bought
from commercial donors, many of whom
are unhealthy and who come from low
income slum and skid row groups. “This
blood," an HEW report said, “accounts for
about 25 to 40 per cent of post-transfusion
hepatitis because commercial donors
present a relatively high risk of trans
mitting hepatitis.”
HEW estimated that 17,000 cases erf
hepatitis are caused each year by trans
fusions and 850 of them result in death
Another 100.000 cases never show up
clinically.
This costs the nation, HEW7 said, an
estimated 86 million a year “Transition to
an all-voluntary system should produce
savings of at least $18 million to $29 million
annually in reduced illnesses and death
from post-transfusion hepatitis alone,’
HEW said
The government also wants the blood
banks to set up regional systems to ex
change blood between hospitals and supply
stations in an effort to avoid wastage.
Simmons estimated that one-fourth of all
the Wood collected for transfusion is
wasted through out da ting; blood has 21
days’ shelf life before it can no longer be
used for transfusions.
Simmons explained that the government
decided not to nationalize the blood system
until the four-pronged blood banking
complex—the Red Cross (collecting 40 per
cent of the blood), community blood banks
(29 per cent), hospitals (18 per cent) and
commercial blood banks (11 per cent)—
had five months to come up with a
program erf its own.
To reinforce the government’s carrot
and stick approach. Secretary Weinberger
said he will call a meeting erf blood banking
interests next month “to hammer out the
specific steps we must take to insure an
adequate supply of high quality blood,
blood products and services.”
This will entail getting the different
parts of the blood banking complex, who
are often at odds with each other, to begin
working together for the first time.
Shoppers asked
views on pizza,
lard, deodorants
(Continued from Page 1)
comments on the Agriculture Depart
ment’s proposal to modify its standard for
some ingredients used in lard. The
proposal would permit use erf cured or
cooked pork tissues or both in preparation
of lard as well as fat rendered from bones.
The proposal would also establish quality
standards for grading new lard. Write to
Hearing Clerk, Agriculture Department,
Washington. D.C. 20250.
—Feminine deodorant sprays. Aug. 20 is
the deadline for comments on Food and
Drug Administration’s proposal to require
special warning labels on sprays. Con
sumer Reports and physicians claim that
sprays cause adverse reactions, such as
itching, burning and infections. Send
comments to Hearing Clerk, Health,
Education and Welfare Department,
Fishers Lane, Rockville, Md. 20852
Before the regulation affecting frozen
cherry pies went into effect, each pie
maker could decide how many cherries to
put in its frozen cherry pie.
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