Climate crisis threatens US medical blood supply amid extreme weather

The climate crisis is threatening the U.S. medical blood supply. Record heat this summer has created an acute blood shortage, the American Red Cross warns.

As U.S. summers heat up, blood drives across the country are facing challenges in encouraging people to donate. In July alone, when more than 130 million Americans were under heat warnings, the American Red Cross said attendance at nearly 100 of its blood drives was impacted by the weather.

Record July heat and other extreme weather combined with typical seasonal obstacles such as summer leisure travel to create a shortage of more than 19,000 blood donations nationwide, the organization said. The national blood supply has fallen by more than 25%, while hospital demand for lifesaving blood products has remained steady.

“That’s a very rapid decline in just a month, and it’s limiting our ability to meet the requests for blood from hospitals,” said Rodney Wilson, senior biomedical communications specialist for the American Red Cross. “So as hospitals ask for blood to treat patients, we’ve had to limit our distributions of some of the key types that they need the most, because there’s not enough for everybody.”

According to Wilson, the number of blood drives canceled this summer was higher than last year due to the heat and extreme weather conditions.

The American Red Cross is a non-profit organization that yields approximately 40% of the country’s donated blood and blood components and has volunteers across the country disaster recovery assistance.

American Blood Centers, which operates more than 600 blood collection points in the US, described the US blood supply this month as “under pressure,” “lower than it should be” and “trending towards a worrying level,” adding that many blood collection organizations were facing critical shortages.

A report released last year by the US government found that the US is warming faster than the global average and that Americans are facing “far-reaching and worsening” impacts from the climate crisis, with every corner of the country facing “increasingly damaging consequences.”

The extreme heat and weather disasters didn’t stop in July. In early August, Hurricane Debby brought torrential rain, flooding, power outages and travel hazards to parts of the southeastern U.S., forcing the cancellation of many blood drives, exacerbating the blood shortage, the organization said. saidWildfires in the West also impacted blood drives, Wilson said, adding that increasing extreme weather complicate efforts to restore the country’s emergency blood supply.

Since early August, 60 blood drives have been canceled in the U.S. due to extreme weather and heat, Wilson said, leaving about 1,500 blood donations uncollected.

Before Hurricane Debby, the American Red Cross worked to ensure that local hospitals In some of the areas that would be affected, there were sufficient supplies of life-saving blood products, the report said, while efforts were underway to provide food, shelter and comfort to affected communities.

Last year was the The American Red Cross said it responded to nearly twice as many large-scale disasters in the U.S. as it did a decade ago and dealt with climate-related disasters “nearly every day of the year” rather than the traditional rhythm of wildfires, hurricanes or storms.

The organization even entices donors with gifts, such as Amazon gift cards.

“A big challenge for us in the summer is that schools are closed, and schools typically account for about 20 percent of blood donations during the school year,” Wilson said. with schools serving as convenient neighborhood locations, encouraging students, teachers, staff and parents to donate.

“It’s important to remember that blood really helps make modern medicine possible,” Wilson said. “Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion. … Blood is an essential part of medical treatments for so many different types of patients. It’s your father who needs open-heart surgery, it’s your best friend who’s going through cancer treatment, it’s your sister who’s giving birth and bleeding. These are all things that happen every day, and patients are in the hospital and they need blood.”