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cd38

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cd38
June 3, 2010 10:38 pm

As someone who carries an epipen for beestings, I understand that allergies can be serious and life threatening.

Banning airlines from serving peanuts inflight seems reasonable; several posts mention the risk inherent in many people opening bags of peanuts at one time (which can easily happen when snacks are served) throwing a large amount of dust in the air, which could be enough to trigger an allergy in severely allergic people.

However, banning people from carrying on their own snacks does seem to violate their rights, to eliminate what seems like an extremely small risk to allergy-sufferers. Nuts are a healthy, portable form of protein, and cannot be replaced by pretzels. No, being hungry or not eating protein won’t kill someone; but, I’m a vegetarian, and I fly constantly, often… more »

…on long-haul international flights, but mainly between the east and west coasts, to help care for my mother who is dying of cancer. The return flight is 6 ½ hours (plus commute time to the airport); when time allows, I make something to bring on the flight, but if my mother is having a bad day, that’s not always possible. On a recent trip, I didn’t have time to eat anything at all the day I flew home; got stuck in traffic and barely made my flight (I was the last one on) so didn’t have time to eat or buy anything at the airport; and as we started to taxi, the flight crew announced that we had a nut allergy on board, and that they (JB) would not be serving cashews and requested that we not eat any nuts we may have brought on board. 6 ½ hours feels pretty long at that point! No, it didn’t kill me, but it does seem that if JB hadn’t served cashews, the risks involved in one or two people eating nuts they may have brought with them would have been extremely, extremely small….and, NOTHING in life is risk-free. I understand that people want to minimize the risks for their loved ones, but you cannot eliminate the risk completely, regardless of what legislation you put in place. If I ate peanuts at the airport, didn’t wash my hands, and then opened the rest room door on the plane immediately before a peanut allergy sufferer, that person could suffer a reaction.

I can support airlines not serving peanuts/peanut products, thereby eliminating the most likely possible cause of a peanut-related incident on a flight; but not restrictions on what people may choose to eat.
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ambersky
June 4, 2010 7:52 pm

I agree that telling people they can’t bring it on board is a bit much, but I definitely thing airlines themselves not offering it is a great step (that limits the amount likely to be on board). Also making an announcement that someone actually IS allergic on board and to please try to refrain from opening/eating any nut products during the flight would be nice. I do think this could lessen the risk a great deal.

My son’s allergist told us not to bother with a “peanut free” table for him at lunch at school, it gives a false sense of security, but also not to let him sit RIGHT next to someone eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So for a lot of people, the airlines not serving it would probably do a lot for them.


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