Euroblood Glut?

Dependency worries

It is as vital to the body as oil is to the U.S. economy. Demand for it is on the rise, and it is, quite literally, providing Americans with a shot in the arm from abroad. That precious and increasingly controversial commodity is "Euroblood," the slightly irreverent nickname for the growing quantities of red blood cells collected from donors in Europe and transfused into patients in the U.S.

The Euroblood traffic began in the early 1970s when many U.S. cities began reducing their purchases of blood from paid donors, often Skid Row derelicts, for fear of spreading hepatitis. To replace these old sources, Dr. Aaron Kellner, director of the New York Blood Center in Manhattan, decided to turn for help to Europe, notably Switzerland, West Germany and Belgium, which had blood to spare because of their different approach to blood collecting.

In the U.S., blood centers meet most of their need for blood plasma, the liquid portion of the blood--which is important in the treatment of burns and other traumatic injuries--by a separation process called plasmapheresis. In it, blood is drawn from a donor, the plasma is extracted, and the red blood cells (which carry oxygen and are given to surgical patients to make up for their blood losses) are infused back into the donor. By contrast, most European blood centers simply collect the whole blood and separate the plasma and red cells. Because they use more plasma than red cells, they routinely throw away thousands of red-cell units each year.

In 1973 the New York Blood Center imported some 22,000 units of "discarded" European red blood cells. By last year, the center was acting as well for other large U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and the volume increased nearly twelvefold. Though Euroblood represents only a small portion of the ten million units of blood now needed in the U.S. each year, many doctors think this volume is already too high. German-born Dr. Klaus Mayer, director of New York's Memorial Hospital Blood Bank, points out that "the impetus for collecting blood in our communities becomes blunted as reliance on imported blood increases." Easy access to Euroblood may also encourage in efficiency and waste. Dr. Aaron Josephson, director of the Chicago Red Cross, believes that as much as 20% of all blood must be discarded by blood banks because it is now handled too slowly. After 21 days, blood cells are no longer fresh enough for transfusion into patients.

Another objection: Euroblood may not always be available. Last month a severe cold wave in Europe kept donors home and cut shipments by 20%. Also, some Europeans, like the German magazine Stern, are having second thoughts about the blood traffic. Warns Dr. Shelley Brown of the Council of Hospital Blood Bank Directors in New York City: "For anything as vital as blood, it's unwise to become overly dependent on a supply that you cannot control."

The New York Blood Center, too, says that it wants to phase out the imports. But a total halt may take five years or longer. Sooner or later, though, Americans will have to learn that Euroblood, like Middle Eastern oil, is not an inexhaustible resource. Says Dr. Irene Roeckel, director of a blood bank in Lexington, Ky.: "The impact of Euroblood is to cover the national shame of not enough Americans lying down and donating blood."

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