70.54.280 - Bone marrow donor recruitment and education program -- Generally -- Target minority populations.

Bone marrow donor recruitment and education program — Generally — Target minority populations.

The department of health shall establish a bone marrow donor recruitment and education program to educate residents of the state about:

     (1) The need for bone marrow donors;

     (2) The procedures required to become registered as a potential bone marrow donor, including procedures for determining a person's tissue type; and

     (3) The procedures a donor must undergo to donate bone marrow or other sources of blood stem cells.

     The department of health shall make special efforts to educate and recruit citizens from minority populations to volunteer as potential bone marrow donors. Means of communication may include use of press, radio, and television, and placement of educational materials in appropriate health care facilities, blood banks, and state and local agencies. The department of health in conjunction with the department of licensing shall make educational materials available at all places where driver licenses are issued or renewed.

[1992 c 109 § 2.]

Notes: Findings -- 1992 c 109: "The legislature finds that an estimated sixteen thousand American children and adults are stricken each year with leukemia, aplastic anemia, or other fatal blood diseases. For many of these individuals, bone marrow transplantation is the only chance for survival. Nearly seventy percent cannot find a suitable bone marrow match within their own families. The chance that a patient will find a matching, unrelated donor in the general population is between one in a hundred and one in a million.

     The legislature further finds that because tissue types are inherited, and different tissue types are found in different ethnic groups, the chances of finding an unrelated donor vary according to the patient's ethnic and racial background. Patients from minority groups are therefore less likely to find matching, unrelated donors.

     It is the intent of the legislature to establish a statewide bone marrow donor education and recruitment program in order to increase the number of Washington residents who become bone marrow donors, and to increase the chance that patients in need of bone marrow transplants will find a suitable bone marrow match." [1992 c 109 § 1.]