Red Cross looking for more donors

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The American Red Cross in the Twin Cities is looking for more blood donors, partly because there are fewer people in the donor pool than the emergency relief agency thought.

Jill Applegate with the Red Cross in the Twin Cities said available blood donor pool is almost half the size officials originally thought.

"We previously thought that 60 percent of the population was elgible to donate blood. And now a study at the University of Minnesota shows it's actually only 38% of the population is elgible," said Applegate.

Applegate said some regular donors cannot give now, because they have the flu or have traveled to areas where malaria is a problem.

She also said many young people cannot give for at least a year if they have had tatoos or body piercings.