Critical blood shortage
Bay Area residents are being asked to donate blood as soon as possible due to a severe shortage, Stanford Blood Center officials said last Friday.
Supplies of blood types O-Negative, AB-Negative and B-Negative have been depleted by recent patient usage, including a liver transplant surgery, pediatric heart surgery and pediatric leukemia treatments.
A seasonal drop in blood donations is also a factor, according to the Stanford Blood Center.
“We’ve put the call out to our current donors, and now we’re appealing to others in the community for their help,” Stanford Blood Center spokesperson Loren Magana said in a statement, calling the shortage “critical.”
Donors should be healthy with no symptoms of the cold or flu. The process takes about an hour.
The blood center’s Mountain View office is located at 515 South Drive, Suite #20. Potential donors are being asked to call (888) 723-7831 to make an appointment.
County’s top science students
A Mountain View student is among five Santa Clara County high school seniors who have been selected as finalists in the this year’s Intel Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C., according to the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
Forty finalists will travel to the nation’s capital in March to compete for over $1 million in awards, including the top three receiving $150,000 each, county education officials announced last week.
The Intel Science Talent Search is a program of the Society for Science & the Public that encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions.
Anjini Karthik of Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, Jonathan Ma of The Harker School in San Jose, Anin Sayana of Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, Pranav Srinivas of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino and Maya Varma of Presentation High School in San Jose will represent the Bay Area at the competition, according to county officials.
The students are past or current participants of the Synopsys Championship, Santa Clara County’s Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held this year on March 17.
—Bay City News Service
Ginger snaps settlement
Mondelēz International, the world’s largest manufacturer of processed food snacks, including Nabisco, Oreo, Cadbury and Trident, will stop selling ginger snap cookies containing levels of lead that were up to nine times the limit for one serving without a warning label, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced on Friday, Jan. 22, after the company and prosecutors reached a settlement.
Ten district attorney offices and the state Attorney General’s Office began looking into Nabisco Ginger Snaps in 2013 after being alerted by an investigation into high lead levels in products containing ginger by the nonprofit group Center for Environmental Health. Lead in the cookies was linked to supplies of molasses and ginger, Rosen’s office said.
“Lead is a neurotoxin that affects virtually every organ system, primarily the central nervous system, and particularly the developing brain. Children are at a greater risk than adults of suffering from the neurotoxic effects of lead. While no safe lead exposure threshold has been identified, California’s Proposition 65 limits lead exposure to .5 micrograms per serving per day without a warning,” Rosen’s office said in a press release.
Mondelēz International agreed to a settlement that includes limiting lead in its Nabisco Ginger Snaps to no more than 30 parts per billion per serving. Yen Dang, supervising deputy district attorney for the Consumer Protection Unit, said that level is the equivalent of .03 micrograms, considerably under the state limit.
District attorneys consulted with a Proposition 65 expert from the Attorney General’s Office to develop the testing and processing protocols so there would no longer be violations of the law, she said. Mondelēz International must adhere to the strict testing protocols. The company will also fund ongoing independent auditing of its products for lead, and it will monitor its supply chains to ensure raw materials are within acceptable limits for lead. It will also pay $823,750 in civil penalties, costs and attorney fees, according to Rosen’s office.
The settlement has a potential worldwide impact on the safety of processed snack foods, Rosen’s office said. The auditing protocols and changes in supplier specifications by a company as large as Mondelēz should have a significant impact on the way other companies screen for lead in processed foods, Rosen’s office said.
—Sue Dremann
Community foundation opens up for grant applications
The Los Altos Community Foundation is accepting grant applications for local organizations in Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills through Feb. 16.
The grant program is intended to help fund events, programs and projects that address unmet needs in the community, including serving vulnerable residents, promoting volunteerism and supporting art and culture in the community. Recent grants have gone to support after-school programs, senior transportation programs and environmental stewardship projects.
Since 1991, the foundation has provided $1.3 million in grant money to local nonprofits, Executive Director Joe Eyre said in a statement.
Anyone seeking more information may call 650-949-5908 or go to losaltoscf.org.
—Kevin Forestieri
