Anne, I will attempt to answer your questions. >It would seem that there is costly duplication of precautions, which >may be serving to keep the cost of banked milk so high (one of my >peeves >is that at >$2.00 per ounce, if one doesn't have just the right >insurance, >who the heck can afford banked milk?) I will once again state that no infant in need of human milk is denied milk because of inability to pay. It is important to try and understand the mechanics of processing and distributing donor milk. We must screen and pasteurize for safety reasons. It is hard enough to get medicine to accept donor human milk as a choice. It must be safe. We do everything possible to make it safe. We have never had a problem with donor milk and we want to keep it that way. We must do what our (HMBANA) guidelines recommend in order to be considered reputable. We help many babies and I can tell you that we do not make money. Someone has to do the work. The screening, collecting and heat treating all take time and people. We lose money most of the time and that is because we do not refuse to give milk to anyone in need. Think of what it cost for someone to receive a pint of blood and compare that to what it cost for banked milk. >If, on the otherhand, screening _and_ pasteurization are both absolute >musts because pasteurization _doesn't_ kill everything bad - then just >how safe is the screening? Asking alone isn't going to be failsafe, >as >some women may not know of their own compromised health - some may >even lie. This is exactly the reason that we do a blood test. We pay for the testing. The donor does not. Again a cost that is incurred to assure the safety of the milk. We do NOT charge for the milk. We charge a processing fee . >I guess what I'm asking is - does screening alone ensure a safe >supply? >If so, why pasteurize? Of course, I think that the answer is "no", >and that >is why we pasteurize. But then, does pasteurization alone ensure a >safe >supply? The verbal and written screening alone do not ensure safety. Again the blood test is necessary. We also culture the milk post pasteurization for bacteria. Milk is not distributed unless the culture is negative. I hope this helps. Darlene Breed Milk Bank & Breastfeeding Center Worcester, MA ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html