Free Republic

"The idea of environmental justice is perfectly sound," Almasi said. "You don't want to have a terrible, smoke-belching, cancer-causing factory in a minority neighborhood because they simply don't have the power to fight it."

It does make you think. I love the assumption that not having the factory there is what the people wanted. It would be interesting to know what percentage of people within a five mile radius knew about the factory, and how many of them disagreed with Mr. Almasi. Those are not statistics we'll see anytime soon though.

"Incidental contact with peanut allergens by inhalation or on the skin Concerns have been raised whether PA clinical reactions can be induced by inhalation of the fumes of a peanut product such as peanut butter by very allergic individuals. Simonte et al found that > 90% of with strong PA had no clinical reactions to the inhalation or topical application of peanut butter for 10 minutes. Such lack of reactivity following peanut butter inhalation is not surprising since the odor emanating from peanut butter is thought to be due to volatile oils and not proteins (in which the allergenic epitopes reside). However, these findings do not rule out possible reactions to peanut fragments, which may conceivably be liberated when several containers of peanuts are simultaneously opened near by."

The entire article from which the above was taken can be found at: http://www.aaaai.org/aadmc/inthenews/news/2003archive/peanut_allergy.html

It seems to me that this is just one more step towards socialism, but that's just one man's opinion. I wonder though when the mental shift occured that suddenly made myself and everyone else around me responsible for other peoples problems. When did people start seeking out others, seeking to restrict others, everytime something is deemed unfair to them.

Are these kids allergic? Sure. Is it dangerous? Sure. But people, this allergy is no different then the swarm of allergies we all grew up with. How many of us grew up allergic to bees, or knew someone who was? Did we stop playing outside? Did our families stop us from playing outside? No...they taught us how best to avoid being stung by a bee.

Imho, we are in dire need of another shift in ideals. We have swung way to far left when socialism, and that is exactly what a lot of these solutions to present problems represent, becomes a good idea in the minds of the many. How many times does the world need to make such mistakes before they are learnt from I wonder...