Tag Archives: Canadian Blood Services

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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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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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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CBS announces closure of Thunder Bay plasma collection centre

Posted on March 29, 2012 | 4 comments

Canadian Blood Services says it is producing too much blood plasma and is going to close its Thunder Bay Centre collection center, shedding 25 unionized jobs.

Represented by OPSEU, the workers received notice this afternoon, learning that CBS is closing its Thunder Bay facility April 12.

“After major job losses in both the Federal and Provincial budgets, CBS is adding to the attack on workers felt across Ontario this week,” says Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President of the 130,000-member Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

CBS states that new products and declining hospital demand for plasma products led to the decision.

Blood plasma is primarily used by hospitals for transfusions.

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