Selling plasma at the Alpha Plasma Center in Provo helps some BYU students pay their bills.

Students receive an average of $20 a donation, making it possible for them to earn as much as $160 a month.

"I applied for a job, but until I hear from them, I plan on doing this [donating] to make a little money and to feel a little bit of satisfaction of helping someone, maybe," said James Evans, a BYU student from Austin, Texas, majoring in international finance.

Over 70 percent of the donors at the Alpha Plasma Center are students wanting to make money during college, said Jeff St. Clair, general manager of the center.

St. Clair said the center sees around 1,000 donors each week.

"We can never have too much plasma," he said.

Plasma is the clear solution in blood which helps circulate red and white cells and platelets. It can be used to make medicines that create clotting factor concentrates and immune deficiency boosters for patients with AIDS and those treated with chemotherapy.

Plasma can be directly injected into accident victims since no matching of blood types is needed, unlike regular blood.

While donating blood takes only half an hour, donating plasma takes almost two hours.

Plasma donations require a process where blood is centrifuged to allow the plasma and blood to separate, enabling the red blood cells to be returned to the donor.

"It was really great because I could study for the hour and a half while I donated," said Anna Bailey, a graduate student in from St. Louis, Mo., studying English literature.

"For students it is really convenient," she said. "You can go whenever. I was getting paid to study and helping people at the same time. It is a win-win situation."

Bailey donated plasma for seven months when she did not have time for a job, but needed extra money. Bailey now has a job, but she misses the flexibility and study time donating plasma allowed.

Bailey said she noticed that donating plasma twice each week caused her to feel drained.

"I found that unless I got a lot of sleep during the week and ate well, I felt really exhausted during the time I was donating plasma," she said.

The center has policies to protect plasma donors and recipients.

"The FDA allows two plasma donations per week. It can become unhealthy if individuals donate more," St. Clair said.

The center requires students to eat healthy meals and refrain from harmful substances that would contaminate the medicines made from the plasma.

The plasma center sends the plasma to labs in Los Angeles, where the medicine is produced. Donors are paid with the profit made from selling the medicines.



Copyright Brigham Young University 1 Oct 2003