Pub. L. 94-278, tit. I, sec. 101

Sec. 101. (a) Congress finds and declares that— (1) diseases of the heart, blood, and blood vessels collectively cause more than half of all the deaths each year in the United States and the combined effect of the disabilities and deaths from such diseases is having a major social and economic impact on the Nation; (2) elimination of heart and blood vessel diseases as significant causes of disability and death could increase the average American’s life expectancy by about eleven years and could provide for annual savings to the economy in lost wages, productivity, and cost of medical care of more than $40,000,000,000 per year; (3) chronic lung diseases have been gaining steadily in recent years as important causes of disability and death, with emphysema being among the fastest rising causes of death in the. United States; (4) chronic respiratory diseases affect an estimated ten million Americans, emphysema an estimated one million, chronic bronchitis an estimated four million, and asthma an estimated five million; (5) thrombosis (the formation of blood clots in the vessels) may cause, directly or in combination with other problems, many deaths and disabilities from heart disease and stroke which can now be prevented; (6) blood and blood products are essential human resources whose value in saving life and promoting health cannot be assessed in terms of dollars; (7) the provision of prompt and effective emergency medical services utilizing to the fullest extent possible advances in transportation and communications and other electronic systems and specially trained professional and paraprofessional health care personnel can reduce substantially the number of fatalities and90 STAT. 402 severe disabilities due to critical illnesses in connection with heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases; (8) blood diseases, including nutritional anemia, anemia due to inherited abnormalities (such as sickle cell anemia and Cooley’s anemia (thalassemia), anemias resulting from failure of the bone marrow, hemorrhagic defects (a common cause of death in patients with leukemia and other malignancies, and of disability from inherited diseases such as hemophilia)), and malignancies of the lymph nodes and bone marrow, such as leukemia, have a devastating impact in spite of recent advances, and constitute an important category or illness that requires major attention; and (9) the greatest potential for advancement against heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases lies in the National Heart, Lung, and. Blood Institute, but advancement against such diseases depends not only on the research programs of that Institute but also on the research programs of other research institutes of the National Institutes of Health. (b) It is the purpose of this title to enlarge the authority of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in order to advance the national attack upon heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases and to enlarge its authority with respect to blood resources.