Letters: We need Chicagoans to donate blood

It’s 10 p.m. in a Chicago delivery room, and a nurse is rushing to it with units of blood. A routine birth has become a medical emergency because of hemorrhaging. The difference between joy and tragedy now comes down to how much blood is on hand.

On July 27, the American Red Cross announced its second-ever national blood supply crisis in its history, as donations hit a four-year low. With less than a day’s worth of type O-plus blood on hand, the Red Cross has started rationing distribution to hospitals.

Chicago has some of the country’s busiest Level 1 trauma centers, where the first units given in gun violence cases and for labor are almost always type O. Because blood moves regionally, a shortage anywhere becomes a shortage here.

Blood donation is often mistaken for something reserved for disasters, but most blood products are used outside emergency rooms. Sickle cell patients, cancer patients in chemotherapy, and routine surgeries and transplants all draw on the same supply. It’s a core healthcare infrastructure, rebuilt by ordinary people week after week.

Many Chicagoans were historically barred from this act of generosity: For decades, gay and bisexual men faced discriminatory bans rooted in early HIV-era stigma. The Food and Drug Administration has since moved to risk-based screening, expanding eligibility. If you were told you could not give, check again — you may be eligible.

Type O-plus can be given to roughly 80% of patients, making it the default in emergencies. Type O-negative is the universal donor, reserved for the most critical cases. But our call to donate is not just for people with Type O blood. A diverse pool of donated blood lets hospitals conserve Type O blood for emergencies. The Red Cross says three more donors at every summer blood drive could end this crisis.

A stable supply depends on donors who give regularly: every 56 days for whole blood and every seven days for platelets. Make it a habit, put it on your calendar and bring someone with you. Find a donation center at RedCrossBlood.org or Vitalant.org –– today, not next week.

That mother in the delivery room didn’t choose to need blood. None of us do. Today’s donor is tomorrow’s patient. Blood donation asks almost nothing but can mean everything to the recipient.

Now is the time for Chicagoans to roll up a sleeve, donate blood and save a life. Someone’s 10 p.m. moment depends on it.

— Chuka Onuh, medical student, University of Chicago, and Dr. Fatima Aldarweesh, associate professor of pathology and medical director of transfusion medicine, University of Chicago Medicine

Throwing away school materials

The images with the article “Community members score on discarded school supplies“ (Aug. 4) are infuriating: books, classroom supplies and other educational materials piled into dumpsters outside a Chicago school, some of them ultimately ruined by rain.

For parents who buy back-to-school supplies, teachers who dip into their own pockets and taxpayers who face school budget deficits, the reaction is understandable: How can we possibly be throwing this stuff away?

As the founder of Reduce Waste Chicago, a nonprofit that works with schools to keep usable materials out of landfills, I can think of another question we should be asking: Who, exactly, is supposed to make reuse happen?

Because reuse sounds simple until you have to do it.

Getting supplies from a classroom into someone else’s hands requires sorting, packing, identifying destinations, coordinating volunteers, arranging transportation and determining what can be recycled when reuse isn’t possible. This is the process that is unfairly placed on teachers and administrators, who generally do not have the time or resources to manage.

Plus, Chicago already has organizations that know how to do this work.

This year, Reduce Waste Chicago helped clean out two schools in the Chicago Public Schools system and diverted more than 5,000 pounds of material from the landfill. Items that can be reused are donated to organizations like Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange and SCARCE for redistribution to teachers and community organizations. Other nonprofits are doing the same.

And as the article illustrates, there is demand for this work.

If Chicago is serious about “(prioritizing) donation and recycling whenever possible,” as CPS stated — and stretching education dollars further — it needs to collaborate with and fund the infrastructure that makes reuse possible.

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— Sherry Skalko, founder, Reduce Waste Chicago

Shame on Chicago school board

As a retired school social worker, 26-year veteran of Chicago Public Schools and careerlong Chicago Teachers Union member, I am both saddened by and angry with the Board of Education’s decision to pass a budget without the money to fully fund it.

This is not a budget passed by people who work in the schools every day and who must answer to children, families and staff for their actions. They will not have to explain why a teacher or teaching assistant a child has come to rely on is no longer in the classroom. They will not have to face parents angered that their child’s mandated service has been curtailed.

The fact that CTU-aligned members of the school board and CTU leadership are among those driving this budgetary move only adds insult to injury. Shame on CTU President Stacy Davis Gates for attacking CPS chief Macquline King, who was merely being transparent with the school community. Kudos to King for sending a letter to parents and community members explaining the budgetary situation.

Perhaps it’s time that the CTU institute term limits for officers as a guarantee that officers have recent school experience.

— Paula Leifer, Northbrook

Bill targets plastic pollution

With respect to the Tribune series “Great waste in the Great Lakes: How plastic pollution is clogging our waters,” we wanted to highlight a lesser known form of plastic pollution that is not the responsibility of consumers. Plastic pellets are melted down to manufacture plastic products, and each year millions of them are spilled or dumped into Illinois waterways.

As young women in Chicago, we’re deeply concerned about our environment and water. After spending time working for the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, known as PIRG, we’ve spoken to hundreds of Chicagoland residents and learned that many share similar concerns. Because of the sustainability crisis, our city has to do what it can to protect our environment and health. There are trillions of plastic pellets in the environment and no zero-discharge laws on companies to stop them from polluting. These pellets soak up harmful metals such as lead and mercury and release them into the water, and the pellets are also consumed by fish and animals, which injures and kills them. The plastic and heavy metals enter our bodies and threaten our health.

We urge the people of Chicago to tell their state senators to pass the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act, which would give zero tolerance to companies for polluting plastic pellets. The Illinois House (HB3278) has already passed this bill; it has been sitting in the Illinois Senate since last session.

It should be industry’s responsibility, not just consumers’, to protect our present and future.

— Olivia Lowy Orzolek and Angelina Tan, Chicago

Ban e-bikes and e-scooters

It seems that almost every day, I am reading about a teenager seriously injured or killed while riding an e-bike or e-scooter. How many more deaths and serious injuries will it take before the Illinois General Assembly permanently prohibits the use of all e-bikes and e-scooters on public roadways, sidewalks, paths and trails?

It is time for Illinois lawmakers to put public safety first and end this needless risk before another life is lost or changed forever.

— Jeffrey Fireman, Deerfield

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].