Medicine: Lower Standard

There is no evidence that Britons’ hearts have grown any fainter during their years of meat famine and general austerity, but it seems to be a fact that their blood is running thinner. Last week an officer of the Greater London Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service announced that tests on blood donors in 1950 had revealed a hemoglobin (oxygen-carrying red pigment) level several points below the average in 1939. As a result, the Red Cross lowered its minimum hemoglobin standard for new donors from 92% to 85%.