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Name: Summer
Status: student
Age: 11
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 12/7/2004
Question:
My mom and Dad are argueing about the true color of blood. My mother says that before the blood mixes with the chemicals in our oxygen, it is actually blue. It seems as if I had a teacher tell me this in third grade, but without proof I can't take sides.

Replies:
Whole blood is not blue. It is either bright red (with oxygen) or dark red (without oxygen). Skin pigments and blood vessel coverings often make the blood seem bluish when looking at vessels on the skin.

Steve Sample

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