COUNTYWIDE : Exhibit Focuses on Giving Blood, AIDS

Stacy Hall, a 17-year-old student at Ventura’s St. Bonaventure High School, wanted to find out if fear of contracting the AIDS virus was stopping people from donating blood.

The responses of 60 people to her questionnaire were on display Wednesday at the Ventura County Science Fair. Stacy was among 573 students in grades seven through 12 who are vying for awards and a ticket to the State Science Fair in Los Angeles next month.

In her questionnaire, Stacy asked people whether they thought that they could get the human immunodeficiency virus when they gave blood at a blood bank. Of the 60, 45 said yes.

“I was surprised,” Stacy said. People were afraid that they would get the virus by coming in contact with infected blood from other donors, she said. The majority said they thought that blood banks did not properly screen donated blood for the virus.

They didn’t realize that since 1985 donated blood has been routinely screened for the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

“Donating blood doesn’t give you anything, it just saves lives,” she said.

Most of the respondents also indicated that they would not feel comfortable receiving donated blood, she said, unless they were receiving it from a family member or someone they knew.

Hall circulated her questionnaire among neighbors, co-workers of her parents and family friends, all of whom were between ages 21 and 60. She concluded that education about the safety of giving blood would cause more people to donate.

Entries at the fair ranged from determining which material will best clean up an oil spill to showing which type of chocolate melts the fastest, and whether the male or female rat is more intelligent.

Entrants concluded which carpet cleaner works best and which toothpaste is the most effective.

Andrew Scott, an Ojai Valley School eighth-grade student, used himself as a guinea pig for his project. He wanted to find out if an inhaler would help an asthmatic person during exercise.

An asthmatic, he ran a quarter of a mile twice--once using and once not using the inhaler. His time was slightly faster and his breathing slower with the inhaler, he said.