Category Archives: Uncategorized

Playing political games with the safety of our blood system

Posted on April 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

The story in quotes:

“IVIG is a product made from large pools of human plasma and it is not possible to claim with certainty that there is no risk of infectious disease transmission.” – From Guidelines for the Use of Intravenous Immune Globulin (IVIG) for Neurologic Conditions, by Tom Feasby, Brenda Banwell, et al. April 2007.

“WHO recommends the following integrated strategy for the provision of safe blood and blood products and safe, efficacious blood transfusions…Collection of blood from voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors at low risk of infections that can be transmitted through blood and blood products, the phasing out of family/replacement donation and the elimination of paid donation.”—From Screening Donated Blood for Transfusion-Transmissible Infections, Recommendations, World Health Organization, 2010.

“We value your time. There are several ways we would like to show you how much we appreciate your continued generosity. You may choose one of the easy methods for collecting your earnings: direct credit to your bank account, cheques, or prepaid Visa cards.” – Website, Canadian Plasma Resources (ExaPharma), a private company that has applied to Health Canada to open two Plasma Donor Clinics in Toronto.

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Revisiting Wisconsin: Could it happen here?

Posted on April 17, 2012 | 2 comments

Imagine a one page collective agreement. It has one thing on it – your wage.
At that, your union bargaining team is prohibited from negotiating a settlement above the present rate of the Consumer Price Index, regardless of where your wages are comparative to others. Only a public referendum could approve a larger increase.

There’s no grievance procedure. Vacation, benefits and pension are all decided unilaterally by the employer, as is the terms of severance. It is not collective bargaining but collective begging for most terms and conditions.

This is the situation public sector workers in Wisconsin are facing as last year’s massive demonstrations culminate in a recall vote for Governor Scott Walker in June. Tens of thousands have quit, walking away from one of a handful of States that is still experiencing negative job growth.

According to Paul Secunda, a labour law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, even if the recall is successful, it is unlikely the reviled anti-labour Act 10 will be reversed given gerrymandering by the Republicans who overwhelmingly control the State House of Assembly.

Secunda spoke last night as a guest of Ryerson University’s Centre for Labour Management Relations.

Not all Wisconsin public sector workers share these limitations – firefighters, police and paramedics are exempted. All were considered supporters of Walker, but took to the streets with their public service colleagues to protest the anti-labour legislation.

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Private Toronto company plans to pay for donations of plasma

Posted on April 17, 2012 | 2 comments

Health Canada has received an application by an private for-profit company to operate two plasma collection sites in Toronto.

This comes on the heels of Canadian Blood Services closing down its last dedicated plasma collection site in Thunder Bay last week.

The company, ExaPharma, appears to be run by members of the Toronto Iranian community, the center’s manager an orthopaedic surgeon who had previously worked for the Iran Hemophilia Society.

Most are relatively new graduates, including President Yalda Riahi, a lawyer who was called to the bar in 2011 and works for a Vaughan-area law firm. Her background? According to the web site of Rotundo Di Iorio Quaglietta, she specializes in commercial and personal injury litigation.

While ExaPharma states on its website that it “has an uncompromising commitment to quality and strict adherence to all regulations and guidelines,” it appears to ignore one of the biggest World Health Organization guidelines – donations should not be paid.

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Petition asks for higher Canadian content in blood products

Posted on April 13, 2012 | 1 comment

Following the closure of the Thunder Bay Plasma Donor Clinic this week — the last of its kind in Canada — a petition is being circulating urging the Ontario government to use its influence to pursue Canadian Blood Services to increase the Canadian content in its blood plasma products.

CBS had originally agreed to do as much back in 2004, when the deputy ministers asked that the content of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) be increased from 24 per cent to 40 per cent within four years. Today Canadian content is at 25 per cent as CBS shutters its Canadian plasma collection centre.

CBS is replacing Canadian plasma with imported U.S. FDA approved plasma product. U.S. FDA plasma was at the heart of the tainted blood scandal in the early 1990s. The U.S. FDA had approved exports of infected plasma extracted from Arkansas prisoners. 95 per cent of Canadian hemophiliacs were infected with hepatitis C, leading to the Krever Inquiry.

Help us get signatures in your community! Download the PDF petition here: CBS Petition Ontario.

A similiar petition is also being drafted for the Federal Minister of Health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How does your pay stack up globally?

Posted on April 13, 2012 | 1 comment

The world’s payroll is $70 trillion U.S. What is your share relative to people living in other countries?

Economists with the International Labour Organization have done a comparison of 72 countries, adjusting income by purchasing power.

Expressed in monthly PPP – purchasing power parity dollars – while wealthy, Canada falls below many countries, including the Republic of Korea, Austria, the United States, Ireland, France and of course those high tax Nordic countries – Sweden, Norway, and Finland. If you are looking for the highest standard of living, move to Luxembourg, which tops the list. The average Canadian earns 66 per cent of what the average citizen of Luxembourg earns.

While income plays an important role in good health, the chart makes no allowances for how that income is distributed within these countries.

The BBC has set up a web site where you can compare your pre-tax salary. Click here.

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CBS: Can we please learn some lessons here?

Posted on April 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

You may have seen this story before.

Recently Canadian Blood Services said it was increasing imports of “surplus” plasma from the United States, assuring us it is FDA approved.

In 2009/10 CBS imported 10,000 units. In 2010/11 it was doubled to 20,000 units.

In the 1980s the U.S. FDA also approved shipments of plasma product to Canada and other countries around the globe.

While the U.S. FDA was happy to approve the export of this product in the 1980s, they wouldn’t allow it for U.S. use since 1984.

Why? It came from an Arkansas prison, where HIV and Hepatitus C was widespread among inmates.

Arkansas was one of the few U.S. states that did not pay inmates for the work they performed in the corrections system. However, selling their blood was considered a legitimate way to make money in prison that was “considered acceptable to the citizens of Arkansas” according the Arkansas Times. And of course, the Arkansas Department of Corrections took their cut of the revenue.

When this blood was sold around the world – including here in Canada — it created a tainted blood scandal that took the lives of thousands of innocent victims.

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Video: Rally to save the Thunder Bay CBS Plasma Donation Centre

Posted on April 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

Politicians, donors, staff and union officials rallied outside Canadian Blood Services’ Thunder Bay Plasma Donation Centre on April 11, 2012.

CBS is plans on closing the centre April 12, placing 28 staff out of work.

While it claims it does not need the 10,800 annual units of plasma from donors in Thunder Bay, CBS notes in its last annual report that it is importing 20,000 units of “surplus” plasma from the United States.

To watch a video of today’s rally, click below.

April 11 rally at CBS Thunder Bay Plasma Donation Centre

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Mayors, OPSEU President to speak at April 11 rally to save Thunder Bay plasma center

Posted on April 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

THUNDER BAY – Two mayors and the President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union will be among speakers at a rally next week intended to save the Thunder Bay Plasma Collection Centre.

Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs and former Mayor Ken Boshcoff will be joined by OPSEU’s Warren (Smokey) Thomas and other speakers at the April 11th rally in front of the Canadian Blood Services site slated for closure the next day.

The Thunder Bay plasma collection facility is the only one of its kind in Canada.

CBS says it doesn’t need the Thunder Bay facility given it has an excess supply of 10,000 units of plasma per year. However, their annual reports reveal that CBS has been increasing the volume of plasma it has been purchasing from the United States. In their 2010-11 report, CBS indicated they purchased more than 20,000 units of “surplus” American-sourced plasma.

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When: Wednesday, April 11 / 12 Noon
Where: CBS Thunder Bay, 1165 Barton St.
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“CBS is not only importing foreign-sourced plasma, it is exporting Canadian jobs,” says Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President of the 130,000-member Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

OPSEU warns that American “paid” blood donations are contrary to the World Health Organization’s 2010 recommendations to reduce transfusion-transmissible infections.

While CBS tells the public about excess supply, it has a different message for hospitals, indicating the demand for immunoglobulin (made from blood plasma) rose by 9 per cent last year and is expected to jump by a similar amount again this year. Immunoglobulin is used to boost the immune system of cancer patients and allows for more aggressive chemotherapy treatment.

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CBS buys U.S. “surplus” plasma while shutting down Thunder Bay collection facility

Posted on April 4, 2012 | 1 comment

“An aging population is a double challenge for Canadian Blood Services. First, as large percentage of our population gets older, healthcare activity will increase and so will demand for blood and blood products as a consequence. Secondly, a large segment of our most loyal donors are at the age where they will soon move from being donors to users of the blood system.” – From the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) website

Last week’s surprise announcement of the closure of the CBS Thunder Bay plasma collection center raises numerous questions, including the credibility of the above statement from CBS.

If CBS is so concerned about its donations, why would it close the doors of its only dedicated plasma collection center in the country?

Donors in Thunder Bay are feeling betrayed, told there was a significant need for them to come and donate, then suddenly told it was all unnecessary. Some of their “most loyal donors” are now wondering if they were lied to.

CBS maintains it has a surplus of 10,000 units of plasma per year. Thunder Bay produces 10,800 units. CBS needs in excess of 220,000 units of plasma per year for both transfusions and for fractionation into blood plasma products. That’s not much of an oversupply, especially if you really are anticipating increased need from aging.

Thunder Bay is closing to eliminate 10,000 units, while CBS is accessing more than 20,000 “surplus” plasma units from the United States according to their 2010-11 annual report.

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Ontario NDP invites you to have your say on the budget

Posted on March 29, 2012 | 3 comments

The Ontario New Democrats are seeking your input into the provincial budget.

Tim Hudak and the Tories have already said they will vote against it. This gives the NDP the opportunity to push for meaningful changes.

Tuesday’s budget represents considerable austerity for health care, especially for hospitals which are expected to endure a freeze on their base budgets. It does nothing to address the lack of resources in mental health.

Coupled with cuts to affordable housing, a freeze on social assistance and delays in the promised increase to the Ontario Child Benefit, the budget does nothing to address the social determinants of health, placing even greater strain on the health system.

The NDP are asking what you like about the budget as well as what you dislike. They are also asking if you would support calling a snap election over the contents of the budget.

To have your say, click here.

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