Posted on 11/15/2012 9:07:17 AM PST by dennisw
Donna Giustizia, a mother of two, says the oak trees near her teenager’s school in Vaughan, Ontario, are a health hazard, and even though the school is nut-free, she says school administrators aren’t protecting their students.
“A false sense of security is putting a sign on the door that says ‘nut-free,’ and there’s nuts all over the place,” Giustizia told The Star.
Giustizia says the trees around St. Stephen Catholic Elementary School are a deadly threat for kids with anaphylactic food allergies — allergies that cause shock.
She appeared before the Vaughan, Ontario, City Council last week to plead for the removal of the trees, saying : “The acorns are not only presenting a risk to the tree-nut-allergic students, but it is also becoming a great cause of anxiety among all students with nut allergies.” Giustizia also said, according to The Star, that “acorns can also be used to bully and torment children.”
Giustizia, who heads the school’s allergy committee, says she’s not suggesting the entire town become nut-free, but she worries that acorns on the school grounds could trigger an allergic attack.
Dr. Clifford Bassett, medical director of allergy and asthma care at New York University, says he’s not familiar with any reports of children having an allergic reaction by playing with acorns off the ground.
“There’s no relationship between acorns and peanuts,” Bassett said. “If people have food allergies, they need to work with an allergist on prevention, avoidance and preparedness. People with food allergies need to be careful and have a plan.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Listen, lady, you’re going to find nuts everywhere on God’s green earth that you go, unless you are in the middle of the desert or above the arctic circle. So, train your precious one to stay away from them and leave our trees alone!
It is probably not the sterility of the homes but the lack of outdoor play too.
When Icame in every night from playing I was muddy or bleeding. Actually mostly both.
Kids now spend most of their time indoors playing with those stupid video games and watching cable.
My aunt swore that my cousin was deathly allergic to dairy but my great grandmother gave it to him anyway and he was just fine.
And they grab up all the light.
No sympathy from me. Why don't you demand a private place for all those with allergies instead of demanding the rest of the world live according to your needs?
My prior supervisor is allergic to peanuts and shellfish.
When my daughter was 5 months old, we discovered that allergies to milk and soy were the cause of some severe health problems she had. The specialist who finally diagnosed it told us that eczema was one of the number one pre-disposers for childhood food allergies. Eczema runs rampant in my husband's family.
I couldn't believe the "stupidity" that we had to deal with, from family and friends who just didn't understand it. One person gave her buttered popcorn, and later gave her french fries without checking the ingredient label (they contained both milk and soy). At Thanksgiving last year, relatives didn't understand why she couldn't have most of what was on the table because they weren't making the "sour cream = milk", "butter = milk", "yogurt = milk", "whey = milk" connections. Once I had to start reading the labels on EVERYTHING, I was amazed at some of the products that had milk, that you wouldn't expect.
Luckily enough, she outgrew the soy allergy at 12 months and the milk allergy at about 17 months. Her daycare was great at handling it. Instead of asking other parents not to bring things in (for parties or whatever), they would put a permission slip on the door. All I had to do was read the ingredient list, say "NO", and then bring in something she could have instead. (Vegan cupcakes for birthdays, etc.)
How sad. Oak is a sacred tree from ancient times.
I don’t get much of a reaction to poison Ivy aside from a little in the webbing between my fingers.
I brought in a PB&J one time (before I knew about his allergy). He stopped by my cube on his way out the door, asked me to step outside, explained his issue, and (politely) asked me to refrain from PB again. As his eyes were already all red and puffy, and he was obviously in some, albeit slight, respiratory distress, I said "sure". Brought Ham, Tuna, etc....no more PB, and no more problems. Up until then, I would have agreed with Beck...figured that you had to eat the stuff to have an issue. So does this lady have a point? Maybe. But if her daughter is allergic enough to have a severe reaction to something as common as an oak, she'll need to learn (quickly) to adapt to it.....rather than asking the entire world to adapt to her.
I have a simple easy cheap solution to this nut case.
From this day onward, acorns shall to be referred to as “fruit”, not nuts. Any adolescent trying to bite into this freshly fallen off the tree “fruit” shall be referred to as “nut”.
From this day onward, “nut” shall loose its classification as a noun and shall retain its position as an adjective to describe a particular mind set.
You obviously have no ability to process what I said, you dull-witted man.
Is this an urban thing?
Are you in a city? I wonder if there are as many farm raised kids with nut allergies.
Is your implication that it must be exaggerated or fake? If so, you are wrong. Watch your young child be rushed to an emergency room as he turns blue, and tell me its fake.
that’s a good question. Don’t know, but would be interested in finding out.
I’ve got 5 acres of mixed trees. If someone moves out here with an allergy they can blow up and bust before I cut down a tree.
My son developed it at about 18 months, so outdoor play (or lack thereof) wasn’t all that relevant in our case.
Some may argue that the nation’s collective nuts have been removed a long time ago.
After all, a bunch of 7th century a$$holes invade sovereign US soil and kill 4 US citizens and a bunch of brave Libyan defenders and we do, literally, nothing about it. This after people on the ground having requested military help continually for several months prior, and during the actual firefight itself.
No more nuts: check.
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