H-3912.2 _______________________________________________
HOUSE BILL 2710
_______________________________________________
State of Washington 52nd Legislature 1992 Regular Session
By Representatives Braddock, Locke, Moyer, Peery, Cantwell, Day, G. Fisher, Belcher, Brough, Paris, Hochstatter, Wang, P. Johnson, Bowman, Jones, Wynne, Tate, Brekke, J. Kohl, Wood, Morton, Rasmussen and Anderson
Read first time 01/24/92. Referred to Committee on Health Care.
AN ACT Relating to bone marrow transplants; adding new sections to chapter 70.54 RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that as many as sixteen thousand children and adults in the United States 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 however, cannot find a suitable bone marrow match within their own families and as a result must attempt to find someone who will match with them. 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 patients from minority groups are significantly less likely to find matching, unrelated donors and unless the donor pool is significantly increased, ethnic minority persons will continue to be disproportionately unable to take advantage of this life saving medical procedure.
It is the intent of the legislature to encourage the establishment of a state-wide bone marrow donor education and recruitment program to increase the number of bone marrow donors in Washington state, and to increase the chance that all patients in need of bone marrow transplants will find a suitable bone marrow match.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The department of health shall coordinate and cooperate with the national marrow donor program and foundation, Spokane and Inland Empire Blood Bank, Puget Sound Blood Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, interested public and private health care providers, and appropriate institutions of higher education to encourage the establishment of 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 donor recruitment and education program shall include the development of culturally appropriate efforts to educate and recruit citizens from ethnic minority populations to volunteer as potential bone marrow donors. Means of communication may include use of local and state-wide press, radio, and television, and placement of educational materials in appropriate community and migrant health care facilities, blood banks, and all appropriate state and local agencies. The department in conjunction with the department of licensing shall make educational materials available at all places where driver licenses are issued or renewed.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. In coordination with the national marrow donor program and other interested organizations, the department of health shall make special efforts to educate and recruit state employees to volunteer as potential bone marrow donors. Such efforts shall include, but not be limited to, conducting a bone marrow donor drive to encourage state employees to volunteer as potential bone marrow donors. The drive shall include educational materials furnished by the national bone marrow donor program and presentations that explain the need for bone marrow donors, and the procedures for becoming registered as potential bone marrow donors. The cost of educational materials and presentations to state employees shall be borne by the national bone marrow donor program, other private and public granting sources, and local health care providers and research organizations with an interest and commitment to public health issues. The department shall report to the appropriate committees in the house of representatives and the senate regarding the development of the bone marrow donor education campaign, especially the effort to recruit ethnic minority donors, by December 12, 1992.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. Sections 2 and 3 of this act are each added to chapter 70.54 RCW.