Peanuts on Northwest Airlines prompt protests.. War on Peanuts!

CNN ^ | Feb 16th, 2009

[TaraP]

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The return of peanuts to the snack menu at Northwest Airlines this month has prompted a spasm of protests from travelers with allergies.. The change comes four months after Northwest merged with Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and in the midst of a national salmonella outbreak involving Peanut Corporation of America. Georgia, where the company has a plant, is the top peanut-producing state in the country. Northwest began handing out the goobers as snacks on February 1, as Delta has been doing for years. In Minneapolis, where Northwest is based, news of the change has resulted in a flood of responses on the Web site of the Star Tribune, a local newspaper. "This is a very disappointing development," wrote one man who responded to the story. "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." "Northwest is really out of touch with its customers and the reality of allergies to peanuts," wrote another reader. "What's wrong with pretzels?"

[bert]

If you can’t live in the real world. Stay home.

A peanut handicap makes you unfit for living in society

[MIchaelTArchangel]

I am actually not certain how many people are actually allergic to peanuts. We have a neighbor who claims her daughter is allergic to peanuts and has had them banned from the local public schools...and not just peanuts but peanut butter and all other products that have peanuts in them. Her claim is that her daughter will go into shock and may die if she comes in contact with any peanut product.

The other day I saw the daughter with her friends sharing a box of Girl Scout peanut butter cookies. There was no shock. I was surprised but stayed around for about an hour to make certain there would be no reaction.

Then I realized, her mother is about 40 years old which means the mother was born around 1969 and would have been between 8 and 12 during the Carter years when peanut butter was a staple in many if not most struggling households. I was in my late 20s and early 30s and ate a ton of peanut butters which was plentiful and relatively inexpensive as Carter drove our economy into ruin.

Flame away all you people who think that the percentage of people with life-threatening peanut allergies has quintupled since 1991. And I can save you a lot of time. You can also flame me for noting that there is no scientific evidence that vaccines cause Autism while you are at it.

[TaraP]

Not knocking anyone who has a food allergy..

But IMHO Many people today have a Allergy to Sanity.

[netmilsmom]

LOL!!!

Thanks for the ping!

[DogBarkTree]

Peanuts are not nuts. They are legumes. “Peas” People allergic to peanuts are the nuts.

[netmilsmom]

>>The other day I saw the daughter with her friends sharing a box of Girl Scout peanut butter cookies. There was no shock<<

Get out!

[Badeye]

There is a small percentage of the human race that will in fact enter shock and die if they ingest peanuts, or its derivitives. Had a kid at Miami University (Ohio) a few years ago die when he ordered chinese take out.

He asked if there were peanuts in any of the food, and was told no.

They forgot to tell him they were using peanut oil in the fryers. Kid died within an hour of eating.

The bottom line is if you are one of these 1% types, its up to YOU to avoid them. JMHO.

[Uncle Ike]

” but this tragic event is very rare, affecting approximately one per 830,000 children with food allergy every year. The prevalence of peanut allergy is about 1percent — “

Must be ‘new math’....

I don’t see how the author derives that 1% number fro 1 in 830,000......

[KittenClaws]

Kind of hard to ban these inexpensive, high protein treats (and PBJ sammiches!) from the schools and implement socialized, taxpayer funded lunches, if peanuts were NOT evil, you know.

Second hand peanuts killing children, second hand smoke killing children, what's next?

[N3WBI3]

To those that are allergic to peanuts...don’t eat them.

Now that we’ve covered this clearly...shut the hell up.

Thanks in advance,

Badeye

—

You don’t need to eat them to be effected in a closed environment with your air going everywhere you can give a person next to you or several rows back an anaphylactic reaction... but hey at least you got peanuts right..

[Darkwolf377]

Wouldn’t 1% be something like 3 million? Weird.

[N3WBI3]

Peanuts are nasty and yes for many who have it the allergy becomes sever enough to kill with only a miner exposure to the dust (the dust is actually the protein people are allergic to).

[Badeye]

If thats the case, buy a bubble to live in, and don’t fly.

[N3WBI3]

no you’re supposed to not eat them in a closed air environment where others can get sick... Didnt your mother teach you any manners and consideration or is sticking it to other people just too much damn fun?

[indcons]

See #33

[N3WBI3]

The number of people with allergies is on the rise especially peanuts. Nobody knows quite why but you cant fake a peanut allergy..

[N3WBI3]

yes but you Celiac disease is not affected if the person next to you eats them...

[driftdiver]

Whats next? Little green crackers

[N3WBI3]

I pray no kid in your life is ever subject to an allergy that would lead you to lock them in the house because they are unfit for society..

[Old Professer]

from junkfoodscience.com:

“One of the most commonly held beliefs is that the odor from peanut products, such as peanut butter, can result in an allergic reaction and anaphylaxis, said Dr. Michael C. Young, M.D., assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, allergy and clinical immunology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Dr. Young is also the peanut allergy expert, helped to develop the first guidelines for schools in managing food allergies as a member of the Massachusetts Dept. of Education Task Force on Anaphylaxis, and authored The Peanut Allergy Answer Book. In an article [available here] for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, he said: “It is important to examine the scientific basis of these ideas before accepting them as fact.”

As he explained about the popular myth that the odor from peanut products could bring on a severe allergic reaction:

There are, in fact, a number of case reports in the medical literature of patients who report symptoms of difficulty breathing, chest tightness, skin rashes, itching, and various other symptoms—all from smelling peanut butter or being in the presence of peanut products. However, a recent blinded, placebo-controlled trial of children exposed to open peanut butter was unable to document any reactions.

Based on these reports of allergic reactions resulting from “inhalation”, many parents express concern that the mere presence of any peanut product can contaminate the surrounding airborne environment resulting in an entire room or area being unsafe for a child with peanut allergy. In evaluating these reactions from “airborne exposure,” it is important to remember several facts. First, allergic reactions to food are triggered by specific food proteins. Without contact with protein, there is no allergic reaction.

The study Dr. Young referenced was conducted by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. They took thirty young children with documented severe peanut-specific allergies (using IgE antibody testing and clinical anaphylaxis, contact reactions or positive reactions on double-blind, placebo-controlled oral challenges). These children underwent double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized exposures to peanut butter through skin contact and inhalation. Neither the children or researchers knew which exposure contained the peanuts or placebo (scent was masked with soy butter, tuna and mint) and contact exposure used soy butter with histamine. There were no serious reactions. They concluded that “casual exposure to peanut butter is unlikely to elicit significant allergic reactions,” even in at least 90% of highly sensitive children with peanut allergy.

Dr. Young’s article goes on to explain how food particles containing proteins can become airborne, such as during the peanut shelling process which can create a cloud of peanut particles, or releasing particles under pressure in an enclosed space; or high heat processing of peanuts; all of which can affect food industry workers. So, while there are case reports of severe asthma from airborne exposure to food in these extreme situations, “the typical inhalation reaction would be similar to that suffered by a cat-allergic person exposed to a cat walking into a room: itchy eyes, sneezing, and runny nose.” As he said, the “chance of a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction from airborne exposure is very small.”