It is NOT an urban legend. There is plenty of medical literature documenting this. Eating trace amounts of peanuts has caused many deaths, and breathing air containing peanut particles has caused anaphylactic shock, which is the precursor to all the deaths. Most of the time, an epi-pen is available and the victim doesn’t die, regardless of how the attack was triggered, but if there hasn’t already been an actual death just from breathing “peanut air”, it’s only a matter of time.
While quick use of an epi-pen is usually enough to prevent death, like most allergies, this one gets worse with each subsequent exposure. So it’s very important to prevent exposures, even if an epi-pen is handy, because another exposure can turn someone who would only go into anaphylactic shock from eating a peanut or two, into someone in whom the shock can be triggered by just breathing traces of peanuts.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11150011?ordinalpos=12&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2001 Jan;107(1):191-3. Links
Fatalities due to anaphylactic reactions to foods.Bock SA, Muñoz-Furlong A, Sampson HA.
Department of Pediatrics, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, CO, USA.
Fatal anaphylactic reactions to foods are continuing to occur, and better characterization might lead to better prevention. The objective of this report is to document the ongoing deaths and characterize these fatalities. We analyzed 32 fatal cases reported to a national registry, which was established by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, with the assistance of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, and for which adequate data could be collected. Data were collected from multiple sources including a structured questionnaire, which was used to determine the cause of death and associated factors. The 32 individuals could be divided into 2 groups. Group 1 had sufficient data to identify peanut as the responsible food in 14 (67%) and tree nuts in 7 (33%) of cases. In group 2 subjects, 6 (55%) of the fatalities were probably due to peanut, 3 (27%) to tree nuts, and the other 2 cases were probably due to milk and fish (1 [9%] each). The sexes were equally affected; most victims were adolescents or young adults, and all but 1 subject were known to have food allergy before the fatal event. In those subjects for whom data were available, all but 1 was known to have asthma, and most of these individuals did not have epinephrine available at the time of their fatal reaction. Fatalities due to ingestion of allergenic foods in susceptible individuals remain a major health problem. In this series, peanuts and tree nuts accounted for more than 90% of the fatalities. Improved education of the profession, allergic individuals, and the public will be necessary to stop these tragedies.
PMID: 11150011 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
How many deaths have been caused by trace amounts of peanuts? A million? 10,000? 100? 10?
This one, in fact...
...from Dr. Yeon Dong-su, dean of Kwandong University's medical school in South Korea, commenting on how electric fans don't smother you to death, they induce hypothermia:
"Many people say that these victims die from lack of oxygen, but that is not true. Hypothermia does not only occur in the winter when it is cold. The symptoms can also take place if a person has been drinking and turns on a fan in a closed room. Most people wake up when they feel cold, but if you are drunk you will not wake up, even if your body temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius, at which point you can die from hypothermia. It doesn't matter so much about the temperature of the room. If it is completely sealed, then in the current of an electric fan, the temperature can drop low enough to cause a person to die of hypothermia."
Why, even newspapers will quote medical experts... medical experts that you should believe... on topics you should never question. A typical example like this excerpt from the July 28, 1997, edition of the Korea Herald, an English-language newspaper:
The heat wave which has encompassed Korea for about a week, has generated various heat-related accidents and deaths. At least 10 people died from the effects of electric fans which can remove oxygen from the air and lower body temperatures...
On Friday in eastern Seoul, a 16-year-old girl died from suffocation after she fell asleep in her room with an electric fan in motion. The death toll from fan-related incidents reached 10 during the past week. Medical experts say that this type of death occurs when one is exposed to electric fan breezes for long hours in a sealed area. "Excessive exposure to such a condition lowers one's temperature and hampers blood circulation. And it eventually leads to the paralysis of heart and lungs," says a medical expert.
"To prevent such an accident, one should keep the windows open and not expose oneself directly to fan air," he advised.
The point is that one should never simply someone's word for truth, specially a total stranger. Just because someone is a doctor does not make them infallible, corrupt, or a liar.
And on another note, there is no mention in your source stating that people die from breath 'peanut' air.
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See my post above. This is one case when I actually sympathize with your nanny state ass for personal reasons. I just have a different take.