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No-peanut zone makes Fifth Third Ballpark safe haven (Peanut Fascists strike again)
Grand Rapids Press ^ | June 3rd, 2004 | Shannon Vesper

Posted on 06/15/2004 8:21:01 AM PDT by Sabertooth

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack ...

This familiar line from the baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" doesn't have the same happy meaning for Timothy Haverkamp that it does for most fans.

Timothy, a first-grader from Ada Elementary, is allergic to peanuts.

"He was allergic to everything when he was little. His brother is allergic to peanuts, too," Jane Haverkamp, Timothy's mother, said. "He never had a life-threatening emergency with peanuts, but we don't keep any at home."

Timothy attended Wednesday's West Michigan Whitecaps game without fear of an attack. The team hosted its second "Peanut Free" day during an 11 a.m. game at Fifth Third Ballpark against the Fort Wayne Wizards.

The game was also the Whitecaps' third School Days promotion of the year, with groups of schoolchildren in attendance.

All peanut products -- from Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to chopped peanuts for ice cream -- were pulled from concession stands, and the stands received a special cleaning Tuesday night.

" We remove any peanuts from the stand or any product with peanut or peanut oil and take it off site. We pressure wash where the peanut roaster was and was," concessions manager Matt Timon said. "We get rid of everything contaminated by peanuts and take get rid of it for the day.

"The vendors are real supportive of it and help us out with it. They were fine with pulling their product for the entire day. They weren't concerned with the lost sales. Pulling candy bars on kids day is a tough thing to do. There is some loss, but it's worth it to get the kids with allergies in the game."

According to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, more than three million Americans suffer from a peanut allergy. Even the smallest particle of peanut can trigger a reaction. Some reactions include hives or slow breathing, but some can be life threatening.

"It is nice to know that we don't even have to worry about it today," Jane Haverkamp said.

The "Peanut Free" day was started last year when Rebecca Andrusiak, a parent from Ada Elementary, contacted the Whitecaps. She told the team that because of her son's allergy, he would not be able to attend the School Days game with his classmates unless peanuts were removed from the stadium.

Whitecaps officials consulted the most knowledgeable sources they could find about how to make the stadium a no-peanut zone.

"We talked to parents of kids that already have the allergies," Timon said. "They're all really familiar since they have been dealing with it their whole lives, and told us what we needed."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: allergies; anaphylactic; anaphylacticshock; annakornakovashock; jimmycarter; pdiddynuts; peanut; peanutallergies; peanutallergy; peanutbutter; peanutgallery; peanuts; snoopy
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To: Sabertooth
There's no dobut that this is a real problem, but I think that the question we're debating here is not whether it's right for the ballpark to voluntarily have peanut-free nights.

I think that the larger debate is about a small minority of people imposing their will on the majority. We talk about it here all the time with smoking, drinking, perfumes, etc etc etc. Do we insist that the people with an allergy take responsibility for themselves and avoid peanuts or places where they can be found, or do we just ban peanuts from all public places alltogether?

As far as the ballpark is concerned, having peanut free nights just makes good business sense to me. Opens themselves up to a new demographic. Also, it's no different than fireworks night, or 'free ball' night, as far as I'm concerned.

61 posted on 06/15/2004 10:35:27 AM PDT by wbill
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To: AppyPappy
Most schools are very willing to work with these kids. For instance the public school near us will segregate the kids at lunchtime (either to a separate table or to a different room altogether)and these kids usually bring lunches from home. They also will make sure there is a teacher or some other authority figure who keeps an eye on them at lunch. for us we don't take chances and go to private school. The allergy is only fatal if it goes untreated - but the treatment has to come relatively quickly. most schools also have a nurse who is trained to take care of the kid if there is a reaction.
62 posted on 06/15/2004 10:38:58 AM PDT by vabeachrepub
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To: Glenn

AMEN, and congratulations on taking "personal responsibility". Compared to many, you are to be praised for not taking your daughters allergies out on the rest of the public.


63 posted on 06/15/2004 10:40:14 AM PDT by wita (truthspeaks@freerepublic.com)
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To: discostu
1% of the population has this allergry so bad it could kill them?! BS.

Not BS
64 posted on 06/15/2004 10:43:06 AM PDT by Your Nightmare
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To: Xenalyte

I'm glad they went back to the old recipe. For a few years there they were just onion pretzels, regardless of what the package said. I'd given up on them for a while until a co-worker brought in a bag. It was a sad world when Snyder's couldn't be counted on for good pretzels.


65 posted on 06/15/2004 10:43:32 AM PDT by discostu (Brick urgently required, must be thick and well kept)
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To: discostu
1% of today's kids are getting the allergy. About half that are into the fatal range. I still don't see how a peanut free section at a ballpark has changed the way you live. Especially considering that none of those sections are government mandated - they are all private enterprises doing their capitalistic thing. Have you really been affected by a peanut free section at a ball field? Or are you just trying to create straw men. We are not talking about the whole stadium - just one section.
66 posted on 06/15/2004 10:44:21 AM PDT by vabeachrepub
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To: Your Nightmare

Yes BS. That study says 1% of CHILDREN have it and gives no indication of the severity. Since only about 1/5 of the population is children that means the percentage of the total population (which was my original statement) is going to be approximately .2%, and that's just having the allergy at all. We have nothing to estimate what percentage of them have it severely enough that it's life threatening.


67 posted on 06/15/2004 10:46:43 AM PDT by discostu (Brick urgently required, must be thick and well kept)
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To: Xenalyte

I would recommend breast feeding. I would not recommend feeding any peanut related products to the mother while breast feeding. This is one of the few things they do know about the allergy and how it starts.


68 posted on 06/15/2004 10:47:57 AM PDT by vabeachrepub
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To: discostu
a final prevalence estimate of 1.04% was obtained.
...
the rate increased from 0.6% to 1.2% among children.
69 posted on 06/15/2004 10:50:08 AM PDT by Your Nightmare
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To: Sabertooth
How did folks with peanut allergies survive before their recent efforts to make the world peanut-safe?

They didn't. In years prior, death in childhood due to an idiopathic histamine reaction would have been the most likely outcome. Of course, it's idiopathic no longer.

The problem is, we can find people with bad allergies to just about everything. We can't make the world allergy-free.

Not all allergies are created equal. For one reason or another allergies to proteins, such as peanut allergies tend to be severe and life-threatening, whereas most allergies are merely minor annoyances. Mrs. Melas RN

70 posted on 06/15/2004 10:50:48 AM PDT by Melas
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To: vabeachrepub

Whether it comes from the government or from private enterprise has no impact of of ot changes the way I live. And how it changes the way I live is then I have to find out which section is peanut free and either not sit there or not eat peanuts if I happen to want to sit in that location. All so that .1% of the general population, or about 3 people out of a standard 3,000 person minor league game attendance, can feel safe.

I'm not creating a strawman at all. If there's somebody here making a strawman that would be YOU, since the article is talking about peanut-free GAMES not sections.


71 posted on 06/15/2004 10:51:13 AM PDT by discostu (Brick urgently required, must be thick and well kept)
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To: vabeachrepub

Considering this is a recent phenomena, I am puzzled that the parents of these fatal peanut kids aren't more interested is how the disease developed. As best I can tell, they are merely content with controlling the behavior of others (present company excluded) rather than studying how the problem happened and whether there is a cure. One of the kids in my sons class suddenly became allergic and the teachers started imspecting backpacks the next day.

I'm not willing to roll the dice with the lives of my kids. If they were fatally allergic to milk, they would be homeschooled. The risks are too great if the exposure is fatal.


72 posted on 06/15/2004 10:52:37 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
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To: Your Nightmare

And therefore NOT 1% amoung the general polution. So the claim that it's 10,000 out of a million is indeed BS.


73 posted on 06/15/2004 10:52:38 AM PDT by discostu (Brick urgently required, must be thick and well kept)
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To: vabeachrepub; Your Nightmare
Over 85% of the kids with peanut allergies were breast fed.

Now that is interesting.

Please note I don't doubt that most cases are a real, physical reaction. The more I think of this, the more I'm starting to wonder if there isn't some larger issue here, such as something happening in the last 10-15 years that changes the way peanuts react with the human body. As I said before, there must be some difference.

While keeping those appearing to be allergic to peanuts away from them will stop their reaction to them obviously, I'm concerned that we're missing some larger issue here since, as I explained previously, there's no biological way an allergy to peanuts can suddenly just occur without something changing.

It's my hope that investigation into this relatively new phenomenon is ongoing.

74 posted on 06/15/2004 10:54:40 AM PDT by FourtySeven (47)
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To: Your Nightmare
One report stated that self-reported peanut allergies doubled from 1997-2002. About a third of emergency room patients treated for anaphylactic shock are due to peanut allergies.

Is this mainly an American phenomenon, or do your statistics reflect worldwide reporting?

75 posted on 06/15/2004 10:56:56 AM PDT by Freebird Forever
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To: discostu

The 1.04% was the general population.


76 posted on 06/15/2004 10:57:35 AM PDT by Your Nightmare
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To: vabeachrepub
I would like to hear how any one of those things has "rearranged" your life.

You make a very good point.

77 posted on 06/15/2004 10:58:01 AM PDT by technochick99
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To: discostu
Whether it comes from government or comes from private makes a big difference. Have you really ever been to a ballpark with a peanut free section? I seriously doubt if this has ever affected you - hence the straw man reference. Its not at all of them just some of them - and even then its still privately held corporations that are doing it. Making these sections makes good business sense by opening up the games to a larger fan base.

Also your numbers are way off. There are 1.5 million people with the allergy in the U.S. - or about 0.5% of the total population. The numbers of current kids is around 1% so the percentage of the total population with the allergy will continue to rise.
78 posted on 06/15/2004 10:58:23 AM PDT by vabeachrepub
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To: Sabertooth

this article has a TON of typos!


79 posted on 06/15/2004 10:59:39 AM PDT by love n hate tattoo
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To: vabeachrepub
No - its not like 1 out of a million. Its like 10,000 out of a million.

Where have you obtained these numbers, and are they based on American or worldwide populations?

80 posted on 06/15/2004 11:00:34 AM PDT by Freebird Forever
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