Posted on 12/27/2005 10:07:36 AM PST by wjersey
The doctors and scientists streaming into the booth at the allergists' convention were amazed at what the middle-schoolers had wrought.
The concept captivated them. It was a handheld scanner that could instantly translate confusing food labels to reveal potentially dangerous ingredients. For the 11 million Americans with sometimes lethal food allergies, it could prevent injury or even death.
That it was invented by a bunch of kids barely into their teens only fueled the fascination last month for the annual meeting of the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology.
But dozens of would-be buyers of the "allergen scanner" were turned away. The device wasn't ready for market, and despite its promise, it may never be, thanks to the vagaries of the law, business and politics.
Yet, for the four inventors from Montgomery County, it has already been quite a trip.
They beat 360 teams nationwide to win a $25,000 grant. From a clunky desktop model, they had developed the portable version of their device. And they ventured to Washington to lobby the federal government and the nation's food industry for help.
Along the way, they have won acclaim from the medical profession and come to learn the real-world frustrations facing inventors.
"I had no clue it would get this involved," marveled Alyse Ameer, now 14, an eighth grader at St. Aloysius School in Pottstown and a member of the teenage enterprise known as the Scanner Patrol.
After its heady success, the Scanner Patrol is now at a crossroads: out of money, racing to keep up with industry changes, and staring at a dizzying bureaucracy. They need cash; a new law could make their invention redundant; and they still lack the full cooperation of industry.
"We've seen the obstacles," said Scanner Patrol member Ryan McDevitt, 14, now a freshman at La Salle College High School. "We're just four kids with a good idea, and we don't really have a voice."
The Scanner Patrol wanted to solve the problem faced by food-allergic consumers every time they enter a supermarket: the need to decode every food label by recognizing the more than 72 different names for allergens and other potentially harmful dyes.
For example, the ingredient "caseinate" contains milk products.
And a 2002 study at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine showed that only 7 percent of parents of children with milk allergies were able to identify all products containing milk.
Allergic reactions can be fatal. On Nov. 23, a 15-year-old Quebec girl with an allergy to peanuts died after kissing her boyfriend, who had eaten peanut butter hours earlier. About 200 people die from food allergies in the United States each year, and 30,000 are hospitalized, according to advocacy groups.
The Scanner Patrol's handheld computer scans the label and instantly tells the user if any of the ingredients contain one of eight allergens or three food dyes. The students laboriously created a database that makes the interpretation possible.
The scanner traces its roots to January 2003, when Jodie Leyfert was an 11-year-old fifth grader at St. Aloysius. She came across the Web site for the Christopher Columbus Foundation, a federally funded agency that awards $25,000 each year for the best student invention with a "social benefit."
She assembled her team - her classmate Alyse, her longtime friend Alexa Tietjen from the Wyndcroft School in Pottstown, and Ryan, her cousin, then a sixth grader at Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in West Norriton.
They asked Alexa's science teacher, Kristen Haugen, to be their coach and brainstormed what to invent.
The allergen problem kept coming up because Jodie is intolerant of red dye and Alexa's younger brother is allergic to peanuts. For their parents, food shopping could be a time-consuming, nerve-wracking production.
Under the direction of Haugen (who was recently named Educator of the Year in Montgomery County), the students established a database.
First, they established a list of eight common allergens and three food dyes. Then they found 72 different names that are used for them on food labels. Albumin, for example, refers to egg whites, while textured vegetable protein is made from soy.
Next they camped out at a local Giant supermarket and analyzed the ingredients for 873 popular food products. For each product, they entered the bar code number and the allergens contained on the ingredient label.
All that information was combined in a computer database, which was then wired to a supermarket-type scanner.
The result: scanning the bar code on any of those labels reveals any hidden allergens in plain English.
In February 2004, they entered the Christopher Columbus contest, and that June, they won the grand prize.
With their money, they set out to educate the public, produce a handheld version of the desktop scanner, and establish a national database of ingredients linked to bar codes.
In March, they took their case to Congress. After meeting with U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.) and staff for U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), they learned that part of their mission had already been accomplished, with a new law taking effect in January that requires manufacturers to state plainly if a product contains any of the eight major allergens.
As for the database, officials from the FDA's Pennsylvania District told them the FDA couldn't force food manufacturers to establish it without federal legislation. They would have to go back to Congress.
And that's where the Scanner Patrol is today. While the new law addresses some of the needs of food-allergic people, there are more allergens out there - one FDA official said onions are an increasing problem - and the law does not address dyes.
So the students want to develop an optical scanner that would read the labels themselves, not the bar codes. To finance the work, they hope to obtain a grant.
"If we actually got this out, I'm just thinking about how many people this would help," Alexa said.
Dr. Myron Zitt of Woodbury, N.Y., past president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, invited the Scanner Patrol to the group's Anaheim meeting.
"It's hard enough to get the public in general interested in these things, let alone getting some school kids," Zitt said. "To think that it's kids doing it, and not adult entrepreneurs, is just fantastic."
Allergen Scanner
The problem: Eight common food ingredients - milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat, and soy - are responsible for 90 percent of allergic reactions, but the names used on food labels are often unclear.
The invention: A handheld computer that determines potentially harmful allergens among the ingredients.
The inventors: Four middle school students from Montgomery County.
How it works: The user aims a scanner at the bar code on a package, and the internal database displays on a small screen any allergens.
A useful invention for a limited market. But still useful.
There are many parent out there who would buy this product in a minute.
What a great idea. Good luck to them.
I think it would be particularly useful for diabetics and might have some use for people attempting to lose weight. And the database probably can be whipped up in no time at all.
The mandatory LAYWER MODULE will make pricing of the unit prohibitive.
interesting........
Wifey has several allergies. I would buy one ASAP. Sure would shorten shopping time!
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