Stop the Hogs!

Please . . . sign PETITION and share with your networks.

Call on our Federal and Provincial Health Ministers to ban for-profit blood plasma collection now.

(Also, see More Information below . . . .)

Thanks,

Elaine

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From: Kat Lanteigne via SumOfUs.org
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 7:27 AM
Subject: Blood

A for-profit blood brokering company is trying to set up private clinics across Canada to sell plasma on the international market for a massive profit.

Call on our Federal and Provincial Health Ministers to ban for-profit blood plasma collection now.

Sign the petition
[ https://actions.sumofus.org/a/ban-for-p ... ce=fwd&t=2 ]

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A private company wants to harvest blood plasma from people in Canada, selling it at a massive markup on the international market. And its biggest source of profit could be the most vulnerable Canadians.

Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) already tried to set up a clinic in Toronto beside a homeless shelter and another clinic next to a methadone centre in Hamilton. Luckily, they were shut down by a unanimous vote in Ontario’s parliament in 2014. But now, CPR is setting its sights on the rest of the country.

Unless we pass legislation to ban for-profit blood collection now, we’ll be playing whack-a-mole protecting Canada’s public blood supply province by province. We need a coordinated effort across the country to put an immediate stop to this dangerous private industry.

Federal and Provincial Ministers of Health: Protect our public blood collection system now
SIGN PETITION here:
[ https://actions.sumofus.org/a/ban-for-p ... ce=fwd&t=2 ]

CPR opened a clinic in Saskatchewan just a few months ago and is offering people $25 gift cards to give blood plasma. This plasma is then exported to the US -- where it can be sold for up to $300 on the international market, reaping huge profits for the private company.

Donating blood is part of being Canadian and a core part of our public healthcare system. Our tragic history with the tainted blood scandal showed just how dangerous private interference with our blood system can be.

Private blood brokering does not improve our public health system, it fractures it and creates an environment where corporate profiteers benefit from the commodification of human tissue. In the U.S., vulnerable people are selling their plasma to survive, and we can’t let that happen in Canada.

One of the main reasons why I co-founded BloodWatch.org is to make sure that a vital part of our healthcare system is not privatized, and that we treat all blood as a precious human gift and public resource. This is why we reached out to SumOfUs.org and organizations across the country to work on this campaign.

Let’s take action now to safeguard our public blood system for generations to come. If we reach 20,000 signers, I will personally deliver the petition signatures to health ministers across the country to make sure our voice is heard.

Call on our new Canadian Health Minister and the Provincial Ministers to pass laws to stop companies from profiting off the blood of Canadians now.
[ https://actions.sumofus.org/a/ban-for-p ... ce=fwd&t=3 ]

Thanks for all that you do,

Kat Lanteigne, CoFounder & Executive Director of BloodWatch.org, and the team at SumOfUs


**********

More information:

Groups urge B.C. to follow Ontario, Quebec by banning pay-for-plasma clinics, CTV News, 10 May 2016.
[ http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/groups-urg ... -1.2896511 ]

The Twisted Business of Donating Plasma, The Atlantic, 28 May 2014.
[ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... ma/362012/ ]

BloodWatch.org Homepage, 2016
[ http://bloodwatch.org/ ]


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RESPONSE from Government of Canada to Petition in protest of Plasma for-profit - - (BACKGROUND below . . . )

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From: Petitions
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2016 4:04 PM
Subject: House of Commons Electronic Petitions

This is to inform you that a government response to petition e-126, which you signed on the e-petitions website of the House of Commons, was tabled on August 17, 2016. You can view the response online, on the e-petitions website, at [ https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petitio ... tion=e-126 ].

Please do not reply to this email, as this address is not monitored. If you have questions about the e-petitions process or encounter technical problems, please visit the e-petitions website at [ https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/ ] or contact the Clerk of Petitions at [ PMB-AED@parl.gc.ca ].

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e-126 (Health care services) - 42nd Parliament
Initiated by Kat Lanteigne from Toronto, Ontario, on January 18, 2016, at 3:05 p.m. (EDT)
keywords: Blood, Plasma centres, Private sector,
Government Response Tabled
Petition details
Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:

•Over 30,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C via tainted blood in Canada, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Canadians and harming countless families;
•Canada spent $17 million dollars on a publicly-funded federal inquiry which revealed that the paid-donor system was a key factor contributing to Canadians receiving tainted blood;
•Billions of dollars in compensation have been given to those who received tainted blood and their families due, in part, to Canada's former reliance on blood from paid donors;
•The Krever Inquiry recommended an end to a private, for-profit blood donor system in Canada, citing these five basic principles regarding how the blood system should be governed: 1. Blood is a public resource; 2. Donors should not be paid; 3. Sufficient blood should be collected so that importation from other countries is unnecessary; 4. Access to blood and blood products should be free and universal; and 5. Safety of the blood supply system is paramount;
•Our blood plasma is not meant to be a commodity that is bought and sold, we must protect our voluntary blood system in Canada and ensure we have one national operator, the Canadian Blood Services, to oversee blood collection and plasma collection in our country.

We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, request (or call upon) the Government of Canada to:

- Refuse to issue or approve any license to Canadian Plasma Resources or other private, for-profit, donor-paid blood products company to operate in Canada; and

- Implement legislation that ensures no for-profit, donor-paid blood donor clinics are allowed to operate in Canada.

Sponsor: Don Davies, Vancouver Kingsway, NDP, British Columbia

Government response - Petition presented to the House of Commons on June 16, 2016
Government response tabled on August 17, 2016 • 9 421-00533_HC_E.pdf ] 
[ http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/ePeti ... 3_HC_E.pdf ]
History
Open for signature : January 18, 2016, at 3:05 p.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature : May 17, 2016, at 3:05 p.m. (EDT)
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RESPONSE TO PETITION NO.: 421-00533
[ http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/ePeti ... 3_HC_E.pdf ]

Prepare in English and French marking ‘Original Text’ or ‘Translation’

BY: MR. DAVIES (VANCOUVER KINGSWAY)
DATE: JUNE 16, 2016
PRINT NAME OF SIGNATORY: HONOURABLE JANE PHILPOTT - Response by the Minister of Health
SIGNATURE - Minister or Parliamentary Secretary
SUBJECT - Health Care Services

ORIGINAL TEXT - REPLY

The Government of Canada recognizes that some Canadians have concerns regarding the issue of paying donors for plasma, much of which stems from the painful impact of the tainted blood tragedy of the 1980s. Fortunately, regulatory oversight and technology have evolved significantly and plasma products used in Canada now have an excellent safety record.

Canada has one of the safest blood systems in the world thanks to its comprehensive regulatory oversight of the collection of blood and plasma. As the federal regulator, Health Canada is responsible for ensuring the safety of Canada’s blood supply for transfusion, as well as its supply of plasma for further manufacturing into plasma products. The Department takes this role very seriously.

The issuance of establishment licenses by Health Canada to companies that collect plasma or other blood components is based on a scientific evaluation that focuses on the safety of the companies’ procedures. Health Canada’s review of any establishment licence application is based on sound science and will put the safety of Canadians first.

The decision as to whether Canadian plasma donors can be paid rests with the provincial and territorial governments, and different jurisdictions have taken different approaches. Payment for plasma is not a new practice and is legally permitted in all provinces and territories, except for in Ontario and Québec. For example, a company in Winnipeg has been operating safely and paying donors for plasma for 30 years. The plasma collected from paid donors is used exclusively for plasma product manufacturing, and never enters into the blood for transfusion systems.

Canada is self-sufficient regarding plasma used for transfusion, relying 100 percent on volunteer donations from Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec. However, Canada does not collect enough plasma to be self-sufficient in meeting the demand for life-saving plasma products, the need for which continues to grow. Therefore, some products, such as life-saving immune globulins, are purchased from manufacturers that use U.S.-sourced plasma, which is mostly obtained from paid donors. In fact, approximately 70 percent of the immune globulin products available in Canada are made in whole or in part from plasma from U.S.-paid donors.

To this end, patient groups, including the National Chapter of the Canadian Hemophilia Society and the Canadian Organization for Rare Diseases, have expressed their support for a paid plasma model and have stated that the supply of plasma-derived products from both paid and non-paid sources is essential to the health of thousands of Canadians.

The recommendations of the Krever Commission were key factors in shaping the structure of Canada’s current blood supply system, and in making it one of the safest in the world. While Justice Krever recommended that “significant efforts be made to ensure that blood components and blood products used in Canada be made from the blood and plasma collected from unpaid donors,” he recognized that for some products, “it may be necessary to offer compensation to these persons for their time and effort in order to attract a sufficient number of donors.” Justice Krever also emphasized the need to become self-sufficient in plasma, and to reduce reliance on the U.S. as a source of plasma.

Almost 20 years have passed since the issuance of the Krever Report. While the lessons of the tainted blood crisis must never be forgotten, actions have since been taken to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. Technological advancements have made plasma products extremely safe. New measures, such as heat treatment, filtration, and chemical treatment to inactivate viruses or remove other contaminants, have been put into place in addition to the rigid donor screening and testing requirements used when producing products from plasma. With the introduction of these safety measures, there have been no cases of hepatitis or HIV transmission from a plasma product in Canada in the last 25 years.

Canadian Blood Services have issued a recent statement on payment for plasma donation, which affirms that the drugs made from the plasma of paid donors are just as safe as those made from the plasma of volunteer donors, and that a paid plasma market is essential for ensuring enough supply of the lifesaving therapies Canadians need. As also identified in the statement, there is no evidence that paying plasma donors compromises the safety of, or weakens, a country’s volunteer blood donor system. The experiences of other countries suggest that both paid and voluntary plasma donation can safely coexist.

Health Canada is committed to safeguarding Canada’s plasma and blood supply systems, ensuring that all establishments that collect plasma for blood products are only licensed following a comprehensive evidence-based review and on-site inspection where product safety is held as paramount, that they are strictly regulated and in compliance with the Food and Drugs Act and its Regulations, and that plasma products sold in Canada are manufactured in accordance with our strict safety standards, regardless of where the plasma comes from, and whether donors were compensated.

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Signatures (1739): Province / Territory - Signatures
Alberta - 97
British Columbia - 358
Manitoba - 17
New Brunswick - 27
Newfoundland and Labrador - 8
Northwest Territories - 10
Nova Scotia - 108
Ontario - 965
Prince Edward Island - 13
Quebec - 36
Saskatchewan - 88
Yukon - 1
Other Countries - 11

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BACKGROUND:

PLASMA MYTH BUSTER - Canadian Health Coalition (CHC) Fact Sheet - April 2016
[ http://healthcoalition.ca/wp-content/up ... gn-rev.pdf ]

PLUS:

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