Plenty of good and selfless reasons to donate blood or platelets. Here is a selfish one, besides the record breaking weight loss of 1/2kg in 10mins.
This is what bothers me somewhat about when I donate blood. I’m part of the Heroes for Babies program Red Cross has, so mine often ends up in children’s hospitals. It just doesn’t sit well with me that I could be contaminating a life so young with microplastics and PFAS. I’ve tried to cut as many plastics out of my life as I can to reduce what goes into my body, but its so hard to dump everything.
I will not stop donating since the alternative outcome would likely be worse, and I will keep trying to chop out more plastic (most notoriously food packaging) from my life. I just wish I knew if they filtered these things out or not for sure. It’s been nagging at me for several years now.
I guess that’s the best you can do. A quick online search showed some breakthroughs in microplastic filtration in recent years, but if it’s all that new then it is unlikely to be used in blood donations. I’d say worth asking at the clinic to at least make it a topic of conversation, the more people ask about it the more urgent it will become.
Getting rid of plastic has been a five year process for me now, bit by bit anything that needed replacement was bought in stainless steel, glass or cotton. Professional kitchen supply stores are a great spot for very cheap (2-5€) utensils in stainless with little bells and whistles to break. For PFAS getting rid of non-stick pans is key. Cast iron is okay, but I love stainless, it’s very non-stick if you just preheat it for a very long time
facepalm reduced from the donor and increased in the receiver apparently. be nice if the article included how the donations prevented the PFAS from getting to the patient…
I doubt it gets filtered out, but it would be interesting to know for sure.
It’s a nice side effect to get rid of it as donor. If I was ever in a position to need blood then imminent survival will be priority over PFAS contamination
If I was ever in a position to need blood then imminent survival will be priority over PFAS contamination
this is a obvious take. its just an horrifyingly self centered article. ‘donate blood because it removes potentially damaging compounds from you! you’re a good person by doing so!’ its embodies so many things wrong w/ people.
the fact where the pfas go is never mentioned is either: deliberate or the people on the decision making tree for writing and publishing this article are hopelessly self centered as a group. neither is a good thing.
True, it reflects where humanity has gone. I’ve been donating for nearly 20 years now (in several countries) and sadly I mostly see older people there, some in my age braket (late 30s) and hardly ever anyone young.
To me this one is a case where the end justifies the means. If someone is motivated to donate for purely selfish reasons then that is still a win overall.
If it makes you feel better, I’m under 30, and the mod of this community because although I am no super-donor, I didn’t see one and I donate often enough I figured that on the small Fediverse I could mod until someone more qualified showed up.
Nice, thanks for setting it up. I guess it’s on us to build places like this one here where ingerested people can ask questions. I should look into organising a blood drive.
https://www.redcrossblood.org/hosting-a-blood-drive/learn-about-hosting/how-hosting-a-blood-drive-works.html can help if you are willing to work with the American Red Cross.
indeed. i also havent seen a blood drive in ages…
Yeah, but the receiver generally tends to have bigger problems to worry about.
if your bleeding out and going into surgery the blood will help more than harm. down the road when you are all tip top you could always give blood yourself. Its a one mans trash is another mans treasure situation.
Except most people don’t give blood their whole lives.
It also reduces microplastics iirc. Who knew, getting rid of contaminated stuff makes you have less contaminates in you body?
Makes total sense, good someone started.looking into it proper
There is a fair indication that old cells can be bad for you which is why some cells that encourage the self destruct mechanic get studied for aging. Donating basically kicks your body into making new blood so it likely has a good effect in that way.
Off to donate all my blood.
