According to Wikipedia, a “disaster” is “a perceived tragedy, being either a natural calamity or man-made catastrophe”. So when is a disaster not a disaster? The answer it seems is in society’s interpretation!

Take the recent British Petroleum oil spill, TV viewers are caught up in media images of a burning rig, gushing clouds rising from a subterranean world to cover hundreds of square kilometres of sea with a black gloopy contaminant. This is immediately labelled a disaster. It is of such importance that no less than the American President Barack Obama dials Prime Minister David Cameron requesting continued international assistance to clean up the environment and discuss compensation for affected communities along the Louisiana coastline. We witness aggrieved families of fisherman, polluted beaches and struggling birds scrubbed by overwhelmed volunteers in an attempt to restore them to their natural state. Oil equals “power to the economy” shares and pensions are at risk, so governments must be seen to act. We as the public have an interest too; we all require fuel and energy in some form in our daily lives, we protest the catastrophe - but view oil as a necessity...

Now lets look at another situation, “the worst medical treatment disaster in the history of the NHS” (Lord Winston quote) - the infection of 4,500 UK haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis viruses; a situation brought about by another liquid contaminant, this time it is largely American blood. Sadly this tragedy is not fully recognised as a disaster by international governments. Instead of mutual co-operation there remains a transatlantic cover-up. The US pharmaceutical companies supplying the plasma bought from US prisoners deemed “high-risk” for viruses and used in the treatment of the bleeding disorder, haemophilia have largely escaped accountability for over two decades. Successive governments on both sides of the Atlantic have destroyed thousands of documents which would likely have shown alleged negligence, attempted to block a public inquiry, and compensation is seen as a dirty word. Until recently there were few graphic images to fuel the public’s imagination (as in the oil catastrophe), and for many years haemophiliacs largely shied away from cameras through fear of stigma and discrimination.

"Now lets look at another situation... the infection of 4,500 UK haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis viruses; a situation brought about by another liquid contaminant, this time it is largely American blood... Instead of mutual co-operation there remains a transatlantic cover-up."

Within a short time after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico I received a message on Facebook from an American friend, Jeffey Moualim. Detailing his concerns over BP, he wrote, “What we would like to hear in the US are the people of Britain showing far more shock and outrage and not its CEO saying this has been an intrusion on his life. We will not be able to quantify the long term damage to our coast for years to come but the people of Britain today can in numbers call out this criminal corporation named after your country – British Petroleum.”

Blood (although a commodity) unlike oil is not viewed as having the same value in society, so receives a lot less attention. Yet ironically, as author Douglas Starr pointed out in 1998, a barrel of crude oil on the world market was worth $13 (US) compared to the same quantity of whole blood in its crude state which can be fractionated into different derivatives and was worth $20,000.

On June 30, UK haemophiliacs will march to Downing Street protesting their infections with American blood and demand that the government implement the full recommendations of the Archer Public Inquiry. It is in the public interest for the nation to have the safest possible blood supply, and the public must understand that the government continues to buy in white blood cells in the form of plasma from America today to supply our hospitals. Our own national blood supply is now “at risk” because of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD - a rare disease that causes degeneration of nervous tissues, for example in the brain and spinal cord). Note: At present, it is not clear how susceptible people might be to transmission of vCJD through routes such as blood transfusions. As there is currently no test for the disease, this could potentially mean that someone receives blood or blood products from someone who is carrying vCJD but does not know it…

Oil and blood are both global commodities important in our lives and consumers must start to widen their view of what should be perceived as a “disaster”. It is important that governments and communities across the world ensure that international corporations -whether selling oil or blood - uphold essential safety standards and are rigorously held to account if they don’t!

Words: Carol Grayson. Carol lost her husband and brother-in law to contaminated blood. She is involved with the Contaminated Blood Campaign Coalition – for more info please click here.
Photo: Courtesy of the Newcastle Journal