Posted on 11/02/2003 10:04:07 AM PST by Deadeye Division
Peanuts no small danger
On the rise and potentially deadly, allergic reactions
are forcing schools to keep high-risk kids segregated
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Tiffany Y . Latta
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Though students at Wright Elementary School jockey for a place to sit at lunchtime, Evan Smith takes his time. The Dublin first-grader always has a seat. Evan, 7, sits at a peanut-free table, far away from even the scent of Jif, Peter Pan or Skippy. His friends can sit with him only if their parents have signed notes swearing their children’s lunches don’t contain peanuts.
Since he took two bites of a peanut-butter sandwich when he was 3, Evan has had to steer clear of peanuts and tree nuts.
"He is violently allergic," his mother, Sarah Smith said, recalling that first trip to Children’s Hospital. "Being around it, whether it’s airborne, contact or ingested, he could go into anaphylactic shock."
Wright administrators created the peanut-free table to protect Evan. They represent a growing number of school officials trying to cope with peanut allergies.
The number of children with peanut allergies is growing, but the medical community doesn’t know why, says the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, based in Fairfax, Va. About 100 people — usually children — die of food allergies each year.
Peanuts can cause an allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, which closes off airways and makes breathing difficult.
In some cases, children have minor reactions — such as hives — simply when they’re near tree nuts, peanuts or peanut butter.
Approximately 3 million Americans are allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, the most severe food-induced allergy, the allergy network says.
Dr. Roger Friedman, an allergist and director of the asthma clinic at Children’s Hospital, said food allergies have become a major concern in schools.
Districts including Dublin, Gahanna-Jefferson and South-Western City Schools, and private schools such as Columbus Academy and St. Agatha have peanut-free tables for children with severe allergies.
Officials with Columbus Public Schools say schools work out individualized food plans for allergic students.
Other districts label lunch items in their cafeterias or post names of students with food allergies in the main office and outside classrooms.
Massachusetts is the only state with school guidelines concerning food allergies. Schools in Houston, San Francisco and Portland, Ore., have banned peanuts altogether.
Friedman said that, at the least, schools should have foodallergy guidelines.
"Are we going to have them go through metal detectors and peanut detectors?" Friedman said. Children with allergies "don’t need to live in a bubble. They can live a normal life with extra precaution."
In many schools, staff members are trained to use EpiPens, emergency injections of epinephrine for severe allergic reactions.
Julia Redman, a nurse at St. Agatha, said the school has an emergency plan in case a student with severe food allergies is exposed.
In 1999, the parochial school in Upper Arlington had just a couple of students with severe food allergies, Redman said. Now there are 10.
Helen Baumberger’s 6-yearold daughter is one of them.
"It’s very stressful at times," Baumberger said. "I make a lot of things from scratch and I don’t buy a lot of pre-package because of the possibility of cross-contamination."
That means, for example, avoiding all chocolate — even without nuts.
The plain M&M’s, she explained, could be contaminated if made at the candy factory in a vat that previously contained M &M’s with peanuts.
"She can’t go eat a cookie or eat a doughnut at most places," Baumberger, 44, said.
She said her first-grade daughter is now adjusting to sitting away from some of her pals at lunchtime.
At first, however, she "felt isolated and lonely," Baumberger said. "Being the only girl in her class with the allergy, she couldn’t sit with the rest of her friends."
Baumberger said that many Upper Arlington parents who have children with food allergies recently formed a support group called the Upper Arlington Food Allergy Partnership. The group is working to establish uniform guidelines for schools.
About 40 students in Dublin schools have peanut allergies, said Barb Sabatino, a district nurse.
While some parents have asked for peanut-free schools, she said, the district works to ensure that students do not share food in the cafeteria or during classroom events such as birthday parties, where peanutfree snacks are available for students with allergies.
Margie Gooch of Dublin has two sons, Robby, 7, and Peter, 10. Both have severe peanut allergies.
Robby sits far from others in the Eli Pinney Elementary School lunchroom.
"If I have a little, I could end up in the hospital. And if I have a lot, I probably will die," said Robby, who also is allergic to tree nuts.
Sarah Smith, Evan’s mother, said lunchtime can be scary for children with allergies and their parents.
"It’s out of my hands. . . . I’ve done everything I can, and the school has done everything they can," Smith said. "Once you get to a certain point, you just have to cross your fingers and hope."
tlatta@dispatch.com
In the case of my youngest daughter, our family doctor thought he spotted the sensitivity problem, based on her breathing difficulties (she was two years old when the problem emerged.) He referred us to an allergist, who administered what amounts to a patch test, where diluted amounts of a wide variety of substances are "pricked" into the skin.
The reaction is visible for those substances that are the most dangerous. A serum is then formulated and regular injections are scheduled to try and reduce the sensitivity to whatever substances have been identified.
The sting allergy often is the result of a single sting, where the person does suffer breathing problems. Stings are somewhat different in that they develop high-intensity reactions quickly. An allergist can spot this sensitivity through the same type of testing.
Read the package of a Three Musketeer bar. It states on the label it was manufactured at a plant that uses peanuts.
I used to work at a food manufacturer that made just add water pancake, pizza crust, muffin, and various batter mixes. It is possible to have cross contamination. It happened mostly in the mixer and tote containers.
Our hardest product to completely clean from the production line was the blueberry muffin mix. I took an entire shift to clean. We ran a bulk mix to flush after the cleaning and I could still smell and taste the blueberries on the first batch of the next product we would manufacture. Peanuts may pose problems.
When I was in school in the '70's a kid had a problem with bee stings. He carried a preloaded injection pen with a steroid for emergencies. No special tables no mandatory bee free areas. People are nuts.
Some people never notice when people are joking, I guess you may be one of those.
Actually, it could. Tests have shown that *wiped* countertops that have previously been used to prepare countertops still contain enough contamination to cause problems for sensitive individuals if their food is subsequently prepared there.
Likewise for kisses from people who have consumed nuts within the last few *hours*.
One man had a severe reaction to a donut that had been fried in the same oil that earlier had been used to fry a peanut-flavored donut.
You could coat the surface of the vat with strichnine or arsenic and not have enough molecules per volume to harm anyone.
Maybe, maybe not (in any case I'm sure you could not get the FDA to approve such facilities), but allergic reactions are different from direct poisonings. Most poisons require enough material to directly damage the body's mechanisms. Allergic reactions, on the other hand, are due to a "chain-reaction" effect, where the body's own reaction to the trigger generates larger effects, which then cause even larger effects, etc. It's more like an avalanche than an invasion. And just as a gigantic avalanche can be set off by a single footstep on the wrong part of an unstable snowpack, very small amounts off the allergen can be the trigger for a cascading sequence of bodily reactions which lead to major systemic distress (and/or death).
This obsession with making a padded room world is unhealthy. The world doesn't need to be (and shouldn't be) perfectly safe, just safe enough.
That's it! You hit the nail on the head.
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