Temporary Off-Topic Red Cross Tat Rant & Public Service Message #5.25 (oops)
I just got a call to donate blood. I told the Red Cross volunteer about how I was very uncomfortable last time I donated blood; I was amazed to see several Red Cross employees with tats; that didn't seem right to me, because of the obvious association between hepatitis and chronic health problems. I realistically didn't expect Red Cross to be a haven for employees showing off tats and piercings -- it seems like a very dangerous stamp of approval to be offering to the (blood donating) public -- Then I snapped: I thought back to a point in time when Red Cross played a very active role in transmitting AIDS and hepatitis into the blood supply -- into the population. I obviously jumped to the wild and stupid conclusion that maybe the FDA, Red Cross and CDC have their collective heads up their asses.
If all you have to do, to donate blood, is go into a Red Cross bus and nicely explain to some volunteer that you had your body covered in tats @ a fairly respectable somewhat clean place -- then that's like totally cool. As for millions of people that are at the mercy of depending on these retarded idiots that play with Red Cross policies, procedures and processes -- who F'ing cares? Blood is blood and blood is thicker than money.
Obviously, all people with tats @ Red Cross can prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) that the parlors they were serviced at were sterile at the time of their inking, and the ink was cool and that they were cool -- because, they have facts and hard evidence that can irrefutably prove that ... some guy with a beard that looks like an inmate named Jesus, spoke words suggesting that he was cool --- or because, some chick that's cool with a relative-dude named Jesus, or maybe because the states that pretend to be involved with health issues really don't have the funding (or people) to inspect tat places which have zero quality control (and apparently no liability) -- but that's ok -- because Red Cross, FDA and CDC don't give a Fuck hoot about a potentially tainted blood supply. I don't even know why this pisses me off now .... I should just be cool with this and let it slide, because there isn't much I can do -- besides not donate blood to the Red Cross. I need to just relax and realize that if I ever need a blood transfusion, the Red Cross bitches are like down with what's happening with my blood. Although this is yet another off-topic rant, I felt it would be good manners to toss in a few related stories and topics:
To meet the basic requirements for giving blood, you must be healthy (feel well and be able to perform normal activities) and ...
A number of conditions, which will be discussed with you at the donation site, may cause you to be temporarily or permanently ineligible to give blood. These conditions include
... getting tattooed in the last year (unless done under sterile conditions and at a state-licensed facility).
... but forget about actual county inspections, realistic quality control or regulations. No one cares!
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting tattoo artists, ink and pigment manufacturers, public health officials, health care professionals, and consumers that some tattoo inks, and the pigments used to color them, can become contaminated by bacteria, mold, and fungus. Contaminated inks are known to have caused serious infections in people in at least five states over the past year.
Anyone who receives a tattoo with a contaminated ink is at risk for infection.
Anyone who receives a tattoo with a contaminated ink is at risk for infection.
Tattoos inks can become contaminated with a variety of bacteria, but the family of bacteria called nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM), which has been linked to a 2011-2012 outbreak of infections, is of particular concern. (Who cares... Red Cross doesn't).
Some Tats Look Cool'er Because The Ink is Auto Paint (Lunatic people of color)
Although a number of color additives are approved for use in cosmetics, none is approved for injection into the skin. Using an unapproved color additive in a tattoo ink makes the ink adulterated. Many pigments used in tattoo inks are not approved for skin contact at all. Some are industrial grade colors that are suitable for printers' ink or automobile paint.
If you’re among the the 21% of American lawyers adults who have tattoos, you might be surprised to learn that there’s no law or regulation that requires tattoo inks to be sterile. The Food and Drug Administration, which has oversight over the inks, treats them like cosmetics and says only that ink manufacturers must use ingredients that have received pre-market approval.
Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, tattoo inks are considered to be cosmetics, and the pigments used in the inks are color additives requiring premarket approval (9). No specific FDA regulatory requirement explicitly provides that tattoo inks must be sterile. However, intradermal introduction of nonsterile substances, such as tattoo ink, can pose a health risk and is a public health concern.
However, the risk is still present in many developing countries (like America). Contaminated and inadequately sterilized syringes and needles have resulted in outbreaks of hepatitis B among patients in clinics and physicians’ offices. Occasionally, outbreaks have been traced to tattoo parlors and acupuncturists (and F'ing ink). Rarely, transmission to patients from HBsAg positive health care workers has been documented.41
Tattoos, piercings, beauty treatments: Body piercing, using improperly sterilized equipment (or f'ing inks) during medical or beauty procedures (such as manicures or pedicures), or tattooing with potentially contaminated needles or ink can lead to hepatitis B infection.
Report: Red Cross Knew Blood May Have Been Tainted (ooops, sorry about that)
A scandal over tainted blood spread yesterday with a report that German Red Cross officials had knowingly distributed blood suspected of being contaminated with the virus that causes hepatitis.
The report in Der Spiegel magazine said employees of the Red Cross' Mannheim blood-donation center in 1991 manipulated ambiguous test results and shipped more than 100 lots of potentially contaminated blood to hospitals.
The report gave no indication anyone had been infected but faulted the Red Cross for allowing the blood to remain in circulation after an internal report on the sloppy testing.
Vickie Jones took her seat in the witness box and turned to the judge. "I'd like to start by showing pictures of my parents," she said. "This is my mother, Diane Jones, who died Nov. 2, 1992, and this is my father, Barry Jones, who died March 28, 1994."
Do you really want Red Cross Blood? (ooops, sorry about that)
Six criminal charges of creating a common nuisance were withdrawn last month after the Red Cross pleaded guilty to a regulatory offence under the Food and Drugs Act, which carries a maximum $5,000 fine.
At the time, Red Cross secretary general Dr. Pierre Duplessis, in a videotaped statement played in court, offered an apology for the injury and death caused by the society's failure to screen donated blood and blood products.
More than 1,000 people in Canada acquired HIV through blood transfusions and blood products and between 10,000 and 20,000 were infected with hepatitis C.
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But with competitors biting at its ankles, Craigslist has finally woken up from its complacency. In order to keep its place as the 39th largest website in the world and the 9th largest in the US — where it is now, according to Alexa — it may be necessary to give users more than a massive collection of blue links.
"Are they at risk of being nibbled to death by all of the niche ducks that are out there like Airbnb, like many of the dating sites, like many of the other kinds of sites that have come out that do a better job in a particular category?" said Peter Zollman, founder of AIM Group, who has studied Craigslist since the company first expanded beyond San Francisco in 2000. "I'm not sure that is happening, or whether it will happen. But they certainly are at risk of that."
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The historian, Luke Nichter of Texas A&M University, said in his request for the court papers that "these and other sealed materials may be the key to determining why the Watergate break-in occurred, who ordered it and what the burglars were looking [for]." The late U.S. District Judge John Sirica sealed wiretap information in the Liddy prosecution, Nichter said.
Lamberth today gave the Justice Department a 30-day deadline to provide the court copies of all the records that the government argues should remain under seal in the Liddy case. DOJ, the judge said, must summarize each document and state the reason that each document should remain confidential.