US Panel Advises Tattooed and Pierced Not Give Blo

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US Panel Advises Tattooed and Pierced Not Give Blood

Thu Mar 14, 9:43 PM ET

By Alicia Ault



GAITHERSBURG, Md. (Reuters) - U.S. health advisers voted on Thursday to continue a policy that requires people who have been pierced or tattooed to put off donating blood for a year after the procedure, but said those who have received acupuncture can safely give blood.



  

The advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) (FDA) said they were concerned that loose regulation of tattoo and piercing establishments meant non-sterile procedures might be used, increasing the potential for transmission of viruses.



"In a non-sterile environment, I have very serious concerns about tattooing and body piercing," said panelist James Allen of Scientific Technologies Corp. of Phoenix, Arizona.



The panelists recommended that blood banks try to verify if tattoos or piercings were performed at a licensed facility.



The FDA usually follows the advice of its panels.



Currently, people who have received a tattoo, a piercing, or acupuncture in a non-sterile environment must wait a year before donating blood. As a result, about 100,000 people are turned away from donating each year, blood banks estimate.



The concern is that these people may have contracted viruses such as hepatitis B or hepatitis C through dirty needles or reused tattoo inks, and that these infections may be too recent to be picked up by blood screening. That worry has grown with the increased popularity of tattooing and piercing.



One study of New York state university students found that half had body piercings, and 23 percent had tattoos.



Miriam Alter, of the viral hepatitis division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites), told the committee that based on available studies, tattoo and piercing recipients are not at increased risk for viruses. CDC is recommending against a routine ban on donations from people with tattoos or body piercings.



Blood banks also said that new testing procedures now catch these viruses early in the infection process, which means contaminated blood can be discarded.



But panelists said there still is a risk of contamination.