Profile: dwein003
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Thank you for your post. As a Medical professional, if you are aware of any studies or other medical information that is available, it would be useful to the DOT.
Great comment. I am a parent of a multi-food allergy 6 year old. We are careful on what airlines we travel, we carry multiple epi-pens, we wipe down the seats before we let her sit down, etc… My order of preference for this question would be:
1. Ban Peanuts/Tree Nuts, most already don’t serve them and there are plenty of acceptable alternatives.
2. Ban on request if notified in advance.
3. Peanut free zones.
Peanuts/Tree Nuts are worse then other food allergens because they can be airborne which is why the recirculated air on airplanes is a problem. I am always nervous when are on a flight especially if we are going overseas
This is exactly my point regarding emotional reasoning and also the idea that one individuals comfort is more important than anothers. in your zeal to ridicule you may have missed the point of alternatives and discussion which I thought was why we were here. perhaps I was wrong to thing that was what we were suppossed to be doing. Also, you assume the child will scream. I would say that perhaps you should help the child become accustomed to the mask before hand by making it a game. This has worked with other things that children must endure. Secondly you reject the notion outright and my guess is that you have never tried it. This also proves that your concern is more with what you want and not what might work. your reasoning backs us “the collective us” into a corner of take it… more »
dwein003 – The problem is when I pull out a Clif Bar to eat as a snack, or a PBJ sandwich I made at home, or a turkey sandwich on oatnut bread, or a snickers bar…Can I then not eat food that I packed to bring on board? Do I then need to change seats? This is where the holes in the plan becomes apparent. Eliminating bags of peanuts is not the issue – that’s easy. It’s how do you then deal with every potential peanut product passengers bring on board? Because to truly eliminate any potential for airborne peanut (for the moment, let’s ignore whether that poses a real risk or not), passengers would not be able to bring any food on-board, because even home-made sandwiches could contain nuts. And personally, I don’t think you can go that far. And so far on… more »
As you say yourself, the child just got hives. This is not a dangerous reaction. So, what is the problem? Why are you so overprotective that you want to impact the entire traveling public due to this minor incident? I’ve had hives before, they are unpleasant. So is hunger.
There is no scientific evidence showing that peanut allergies are increasing. Self-reporting studies are inherently flawed and cannot be used for that very purpose. Uninformed parents think every adverse reaction to some food must be an allergy, and they don’t bother to have their children tested to find out.
Without there being a unified standard for allergy testing and diagnosis, any studies will be irrelevant and nothing more than a source of debate among the scientific community.
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Mr. Aldrich:
Please read the earlier posts on this topic. One would hope that you are a reasonable enough individual that if someone came to you and said that “Eating peanuts next to me could make me really sick – please don’t do that” that you would not choose to ‘resist’ this person.
This is a matter of life and death to some people, so I would hope that, if faced with a situation, you would show others that you can be a considerate person (despite your message above).
Thank you.
I am the father of a 5-year old with a severe peanut allergy as well as a physician and a medical epidemiologist. While I have been fortunate enough to not experience an anaphylactic reaction in my son, I have seen patients with anaphylactic reactions. They are terrifying for everyone involved, even in situations where you are surrounded by trained staff, abundant medications and crash carts.
The way I see this issue is that it is balancing the risks and benefits of peanuts on planes. The risks are pretty obvious and encompass death and less severe reactions that, at a minimum, are likely to result in an emergency landing.
The benefits of serving peanuts on planes are limited to the fact that most people like peanuts and they are fairly inexpensive.
I have seen on this discussion board… more »
For people who say ‘Just don’t travel on planes’, I assert that they are missing the point. It is not as if dealing with a severe allergy is not already lifestyle altering. I will never be able to take my son to a major league baseball park; we will never be able to go down the street for ice cream on a hot summer day; we cannot go to a Chinese restaurant. This is all OK because these are luxuries. Furthermore, if we somehow do find ourselves in a hazardous situation, we can just get up and leave. On an airplane, that is not an option. There is no getting up and leaving (and just the act of changing your seat is a challenge).
So, the way I see it is that the risks associated with serving peanuts in a closed environment where the ability to provide medical care is limited clearly outweigh the benefits of serving peanuts both on a societal and cultural level (because the very real risk faced by children and adults with severe peanut allergies far exceeds the benefit of airlines serving peanuts).
This is a clear choice. « less
There is nothing that I am aware of that has not been recently publicized.
These include:
1) Sicherer SH et al. US prevalence of self-reported peanut, tree nut, and sesame allergy: 11-year follow-up. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010; 125(6):1322-6.
This article showed increasing prevalence peanut allergy in children but is limited by the lack of a gold standard for diagnosis.
2) Ben-Shoshan M et al. A population-based study on peanut, tree nut, fish, shellfish, and sesame allergy prevalence in Canada. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010;125(6):1327-35.
This article is similar in the effect size and is notable because the rates of peanut allergy are 2-4 times higher in children than in adults (with varying the definitions to include only confirmed as well as confirmed and probable allergy).
3) Venter… more »
Shows similar prevalence rates as the US and Canadian studies above of ~1.2-1.4% in children born on the Isle of Wight, UK.
4) Branum and Lukacs. Food allergy among children in the United States. Pediatrics. 2009; 124(6):1549-55.
This is an analysis of data gathered by the CDC program (NHANES 2005-2006), designed to be a nationally representative population. In this study, serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to peanut were detectable for an estimated 9% of US children. This tells us a few things: 1) Peanut allergies are likely common; and 2) Serum IgE testing likely overestimates the number of people with clinically significant peanut allergies. Still, this high rate of elevate IgE could presage trends to come.
The major problem is that some cases of peanut allergy are obvious while others are of uncertain significance. But, it appears that the prevalence of children with clinically significant peanut allergy is increasing (which means in a few years that the prevalence will also increase in adults). Why the prevalence is increasing remains a mystery. « less
As the parent of a young child with a severe peanut allergy, I would be thrilled with the following:
1) Airlines do not serve peanuts on-board
2) All airlines have a well-documented, easily accessible, and ingrained among all flight staff policy regarding food allergies and procedures for dealing with food allergies, including:
a) Early boarding for passengers with allergies to inspect their assigned seats and either clean them or request a seat change if necessary (Southwest allows early boarding as long as you do not take an exit row)
2) Following declaration of an allergy, education of nearby passengers regarding peanut products (particularly those which may release dust that can go airborne); this could be done with a single-sided piece of paper.
3) Flexibility with seating assignments… more »
Essentially, the key with this, as with everything in life, is to minimize risk while maximizing feasibility. An absolute ban on peanut products is not currently possible, but it is possible to increase the protection of passengers with life threatening allergies with minimal inconvenience to other passengers.
Please everyone on this site, be reasonable, accommodating and, if possible, kind to others.
Thank you.
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There is a question of practicality here. Peanut allergies (and other food allergies) at the current time are becoming increasingly common in children. For a hypothetical cross-country flight with a young child, how can you keep an N95 mask on them for 6 hours (the masks for particulates are not the thin surgical masks but the far thicker versions)? Seriously??
While I appreciate that a person may require peanuts to be ‘comfortable’ as asserted by csleep2, I would ask this individual to consider this proposition more fully, as I suspect that 6 hours of screaming from said toddler while the distraught parent struggles valiantly to keep the surgical mask in place will result in far greater discomfort than the loss of the 2 ounce bag of airplane peanuts. But I could be wrong –… more »
I am actually focusing on feasibility and weighing risks against benefits (and apologize for the sarcasm). But, yes, I do reject the concept that having a toddler suit and mask up for 6 hours is feasible. Just curious, but have you ever worn a surgical mask for 6 hours? I actually have, and I found it quite uncomfortable. Critically, I have the willpower and the motivation to keep it in place (because I am an adult and have the ability to modify my behavior when faced with logical demands). Toddlers do not have this ability. So now balance this against the idea of airlines needing to serve peanuts at 35,000 feet. It seems fairly straightforward to me. Personally, if you want to bring your Snickers bar on-board and eat it, that is fine. But, I do not want to be sitting anywhere near… more »
My suggestions:
1) Airlines do not serve peanuts on-board
2) All airlines have a well-documented, easily accessible, and ingrained among all flight staff policy regarding food allergies and procedures for dealing with food allergies, including:
a) Early boarding for passengers with allergies to inspect their assigned seats and either clean them or request a seat change if necessary (Southwest allows early boarding as long as you do not take an exit row)
b) Following declaration of an allergy, education of nearby passengers regarding peanut products (particularly those which may release dust that can go airborne); this could be done with a single-sided piece of paper.
c) Flexibility with seating assignments to accommodate changes if a problem is apparent.
This is not a ‘take it or leave it’ approach, but rather a balanced approach that weighs risks versus inconvenience for peanut consumers. Individual masks are not a practical solution for the most vulnerable passengers. « less
I agree with Steyermark’s comments in many ways – a full ban on peanut products is unenforceable and not practical. In my family, we read labels, understand where the labels may not give all of the information, etc… This is not something that will be done by the majority of people. Also, foods like PBJ sandwiches are really easy to fly with – no refrigeration required.
So, what I think needs to happen:
1) The airlines themselves do not serve peanut products
2) The airlines have clearly documented/posted allergy policies with education of staff (and encouragement of passenger awareness of these policies) to increase awareness that there may need to be some seat flexibility for people intending to eat peanut products from home during the flight if seated near peanut-allergic… more »
Finally, if necessary, I am more than prepared to either 1) give an affected passenger food that we brought on the plane that is peanut safe if they are really hungry (we always bring plenty of extra ‘safe’ food) or will gladly fork over the additional $5-$50 to buy them/their family whatever in-flight food they want if it means that they will not expose my family to peanut allergens in close proximity.
Thanks. « less
I would love to see a full ban – for those with allergies, it is clearly optimal. I do not think it is possible at this time though. Where is the line drawn? What about ‘possible contamination’ or ‘shares equipment’ labels, etc…
I know that I will never feel secure when flying on a plane with my son (who has a severe allergy), just as I am never secure in a restaurant and just as we always make sure to have his epi-pens with us.
The above would be a huge advance for people with food allergies, and, maybe in the future, it will be able to go further. But, for now, I do not see how it is practical.
On a plane 2 years ago, when my son was 3, he came into contact the carpeting below the seat and developed hives. We looked and saw an old peanut under the seat in front of us. He has a documented peanut allergy. I suspect that there was residual peanut in the carpet that he came into contact with.
I am fairly certain that this 3 year-old boy he did not get hives because he was ‘stressed out’. Fortunately all he got was hives, but as best we could tell he did not have a serious ingestion (and our leg of the flight was peanut-free after we had notified the airline of his allergy at booking and check-in).
Please also see posts above citing the peer reviewed medical literature regarding the prevalence of food allergies, and specifically peanut allergies, in children.
So, while… more »
Thank you. « less