(Untitled)

[emmycantbemeeko]

"My wife's allergy is so severe that if someone is sitting next to her and eating peanuts, the odor is enough to trigger an allergic reaction."

SILLINESS. You cannot have an allergic reaction to food proteins from an odor!

Comments

[tiny_nomad]

In order to smell something, aren't we actually just taking in minute particles of the object through our noses? So, would it be reasonable to say that you're still ingesting the allergen, just in much smaller quantities?

[emmycantbemeeko]

No, it sounds good (which is why this fear sounds reasonable to many people), but it doesn't work quite like that. Severe allergic reactions to peanuts are triggered by full proteins in peanuts, while the scent of peanuts is produced by much smaller particles called pyrazines. Pyrazines alone can't trigger the immune reaction.

It is possible that in some situations, pyrazines and aerosolized peanut protein particles could both be present in the air, but that would primarily be in industrial uses, where large amonuts of peanuts are being shelled or crushed- there's no reason to believe that that's the case in a normal eating situations, and certainly peanut odor can be detected from outside any potential "danger zone" related to airborne peanut bits. Add to that the evidence that inhalation or skin contact with minute particles of allergen generally causes a less severe reaction than actual ingestion and the widespread belief that just a whiff of peanut butter will kill an allergic kid falls apart.

[tiny_nomad]

Aha! Learn something new every day. That makes sense.

[jaded_dreamer]

Yeah, that article was definitely lacking a credible informant. Go, Emmy, and be the voice of reason!

In related news, WGN in Chicago reported tonight that one of the suburban school districts is considering banning all peanut products in their schools, including (from what the report said) anything the students might bring in from the outside in their own lunches.

While I'm all about Health and Safety and the all-important Wellbeing of Children, I think this one crosses the line. The board is leaning against it, apparently, and will vote in a few weeks. One school is already trying it as a "pilot program".

Oy.

[emmycantbemeeko]

Oy indeed!

That's so silly. If a child is really so allergic to peanuts that they're at risk of death from being in the presence of their deskmate's lunch, they really ought to be kept home from school till they're old enough to be responsible for their own health. That's just a stupid risk to take with your child's health, peanut-free policy or not.

Of course I don't believe that it really is such a great risk. But if I did and it was my child, trusting hundreds of other people to comply with restrictions to protect my child would be a very very distant second choice to actually personally supervising my child's food environment and teaching them to do the same as they grew.

That most peanut-allergy parents do not do this tells you something about the true risk level involved.

I'm glad the school board seems to be leaning in the direction of sanity.