Sacramento – Today, the Assembly Health Committee unanimously approved Assembly Bill 34, authored by Assemblymember Portantino.   The bill, if approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, would establish a statewide public umbilical blood banking program. 

“I’m very excited by the unanimous bipartisan support from the Assembly Health Committee,” said Portantino.  “Umbilical cord blood can save thousands of lives, yet we throw it away as medical waste.”

The umbilical cord, usually is discarded along with the placenta. However, blood retrieved from the umbilical cord is a rich source of stem cells.  Like bone marrow, cord blood can be used to treat various genetic disorders that affect the blood and immune system, leukemia and certain cancers, and some inherited disorders of body chemistry.  Stem cells from cord blood offer some advantages over those retrieved from bone marrow.  Cord blood stem cells are much easier to obtain; a broader range of recipients may benefit from them; and, a potentially fatal complication called graft versus host disease (GVHD), in which donor cells can attack the recipient's tissues, appears to occur less frequently with cord blood than with bone marrow. 

Cord blood collected immediately after birth can be stored by a commercial blood bank for a family's own use or it can be donated to a public bank for an individual needing a transplant.  Unfortunately, commercial blood banks typically charge an initiation fee of between $1000 to $2000 and an annual maintenance fee of between $50 and $150, making cord blood banking unavailable to many Californians. 

“When my wife and I tried to donate our daughter’s cord blood, we found it extremely difficult to do,” continued Portantino.  “That experience made me realize that our state is not prepared to serve the public at large, especially communities of color.”

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, marrow and cord blood transplants require matching certain tissue traits of the donor and patient.  Because these traits are inherited, a patient's most likely match is someone of the same heritage.  American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and multiple-race patients face a greater challenge in finding matched donors or cord blood than white patients.  Cord blood is 100 times more likely to match than bone marrow.

AB 34, the first bill Assemblymember Portantino introduced when he was sworn-in in December, received bipartisan unanimous support from the Assembly Health Committee and will be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in late April or early May.

Assemblymember Anthony Portantino was elected to serve the 44th Assembly District in November of 2006. The district encompasses Altadena, Duarte, La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena, South Pasadena and Temple City.  It also includes portions of Arcadia, Monrovia, Mayflower Village and the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhoods of Glassell Park, Hermon, Highland Park, Mount Washington and Eagle Rock.