I think banning all peanut products, and searching lunch bags for them, on the off chance that a stray peanut particle will kill an allergic student, is rather over the top.
But Diogenes’ response to this was pretty much as bad.
Maybe the parents of the allergic child are over-reacting, and airborne particles aren’t a danger to the child. But if they are a danger, and the school board is reacting to a genuine danger, then saying “I am going to pack my kid’s lunch full of peanut products, and if your little bastard croaks, tough!” is pretty crass.
He has apologized for at least part of it. :shrug:
No, probably not. Although I can see how your comments might have been inferred that way.
On the other hand, emarkp’s final paragraph in the OP is in NO WAY justified. In fact, it’s worse than any of your comments that spawned the pitting in the first place.
It isn’t only kids who have peanut allergies. My husband and I are in our late 20’s and he is allergic to all nuts, and a crapload of other things. When he has an allergic reaction it is mostly annoying - hives, vomiting diarrhea, etc. EXCEPT with nuts and chocolate, if he ingests even a minute amount he goes into anaphylactic shock, as in stop breathing and die in under ten minutes without medical intervention.
That’s right DIE! I really like peanut butter, but the idea of going through life without chocolate I couldn’t imagine. Our compromise - I have my own shelf in the pantry to store it in, plastic dishes and napkins for when I eat nuts or chocolate and my own soap, towel, etc. to wash up afterwards. Yes, and brush my teeth so I don’t breathe on him. And no, we don’t kiss very damn often because kissing ain’t worth dying over. Sex maybe.
As for work, he and one other fellow employee are severely allergic to nuts and coconut, so we don’t use them, 500 people work in 6 locations and not one uses either because of the allergies. Oh yeah, we work in bakeries!
So don’t say it can’t be done, or that it’s stupid, because isn’t it worth the time and effort if it could mean someone’s life? Especially a child??!!
Well I know I would be first in line to purchase goods from a bakery that didn’t use chocolate or nuts. Hell, that must be almost as lucrative of a business plan as a drive in movie theater in Alaska.
Question for the Peanut-Allergic and / or their parents:
I have allergies, some of them rather severe. I’ve had to take shots for them for quite some time now. Is this sort of treatment for nut allergies possible, and if not, why not? If so, then I think the ones to be pitted should be the kid’s parents for demanding everyone else inconvenience themselves instead of taking what I would consider to be a logical step in protecting their kid.
Diogenes is a goat-felching, hamster-jamming son of iniquity. His every action a misdeed, his every thought corrupt, he oozes amongst us with oily intent. His deranged Trotskyist world view is only matched by his inattention to hygiene.
But I agree with him on this one.
(Warning! This post contains irony and sarcasm, as well as traces of genial jocularity. Humor impaired persons should remove themselves from this board IMMEDIATELY and not return for at least 24 hours, or until properly medicated.)
I have difficulties with very low blood sugar, and no way could I take my flights between Dulles and Heathrow without my supply of cashews and peanuts…so now will it be ‘Aisle/window? Nut/nutless flight?’ Hmmm…
Perhaps if the peanut butter were to be carried by a swallow…?
But actually I had no idea peanut people were that sensitive. Whenever I used to fly out of California I would buy a couple Thai Chicken Pizzas, from a Cali. Pizza Kitchen at the airport. I would throw it in my carry on for when I got home. After about 20 minutes the entire plane reeked of peanut(and ginger), and I just played stupid about what was causing the smell. I just figured it was annoying to other people, not a big freak out deal.
Might not be a huge sacrifice for some kids. But my daughter won’t be eating lunch for the entire time she attends that school. See, the only foods she will eat that are practical to send for lunch are peanut butter sandwiches and a variety of Chinese dishes (many of which probably contain peanut oil). She’s not terribly picky, but most of the other foods she eats just aren’t suitable for a packed lunch. Reasonable accomodations are one thing- a separate table or even room for peanut butter eaters, no class treats containing peanut products, etc. But to expect my child to essentially go without lunch for the benefit of a child who is apparently so allergic he can’t leave his house safely* is another. While the parents of the allergic child are more concerned about their child than they are about mine, I am more concerned about mine than theirs. And she can’t afford to skip meals.
*If the kid is so allergic that other children eating peanut butter in the same school is a threat which can’t be managed by the more common peanut restrictions (separate tables or rooms and enforced hand washing) where can he safely go? Any place he goes, he may encounter people eating peanuts or peanut butter or he may touch things that people who have recently eaten peanuts or peanut butter may have touched. If another kid in the same building eating peanut butter is a threat, so is a kid at the playground, or another person in the theater , or someone at the baseball game or the stand selling hot roasted nuts at the mall. Either the kid really shouldn’t leave home for his own safety or someone is overrreacting.
First it is no peanut butter because 1 kid is allergic. Okay, small sacrifice but you can deal. Then it is the kid with other nut allergies. You’ve already given up peanut butter, the rest of the nuts can fall by the wayside, for that one kid. Then the kid with the dairy allergy speaks up, then the kid who is allergic to wheat then… Hell, at this point the vegetarians may start to complain. You’ll make accommodations for them, but you’re going to either starve or be very, very board with your lunches after about 2 weeks.
DogMom: it’s my understanding that desensitisation therapy (whether allergy shots or some other method) is only used for environmental allergies rather than food allergies. I know when I was a kid and was told that I couldn’t eat peanuts anymore I responded with, “I’m getting shots for other allergies, why can’t I get shots for this?”
I can think of a couple of possible reasons for this. One of them is that it’s much, much harder to simply avoid environmental allergens than it is to avoid foods; I can’t escape ragweed season, even with air filters and the like.
The other is that food allergies can be directly fatal, and environmental allergies rarely are. (When environmental allergies kill, it’s generally due to complications or interactions with some other medical issue, like asthma.) Food allergies more closely resemble bee sting allergies, with the risk of anaphylactic shock (I think I got that right); doing desensitisation therapy would therefore be introducing things to a system with much higher odds of outright killing someone than for pollens and the like. (And my experience of allergy shots is that if there was any sign of an adverse reaction to the shot, they made folks stay later to be sure, on the order of magnitude of an hour.)
Peanut allergies can be, in some cases, contact allergies, not ingestion allergies; I think they’re also the most likely of the various food allergies to provide “nearly instant kill” responses.
That being said, I’m really not sure how I feel about the idea of banning peanut butter or the like from a school cafeteria. My personal feeling about the matter is that I get resentful when people are eating peanut products around me because I’m Not Allowed whine, but my allergy isn’t, as far as I can judge, one of the very severe ones. My personal issue comes in when (for example) airlines only provide peanuts as their snackums for a flight, and don’t have alternate options available for those folks who can’t have them. (Because there’s nothing that makes a bitter and unrecovered peanut addict feel sarcastic like being surrounded by people crunching happily away on free food I love and can’t eat.)
If this person (doesn’t matter if it’s a child or adult) risks death by being near some one who’s recently eaten peanuts, has peanut products on their breath, hands etc. then they’re risking death by mingling at any point with members of the general public.
The school may indeed be able to attempt to regulate if kids bring peanut butter sandwiches in the building, eat them etc.
but there is no way on this earth that they can regulate that for all people who enter the school - from the postal carrier to the bus drivers to the other parents and other children, etc etc etc
Am most sorry for folks with severe allergies like those described, and was supportive of a co-worker who was submitting a grievance against her boss who would wear a certain perfume that would cause an asthma attack in this employee.
as Sua pointed out, reasonable accomodations should be made, which may include having a seperate dining area for those w/severe allergies, mandating hand washing prior to exiting the lunchroom for all, and the individual classroom should not send peanutty treats for class parties. But if measures beyond that are required for that person’s safety, they should insure their total safety by remaining in completely controlled environments. and a public school ain’t that.
Ummm yeah, we both work in a bakery, but the key thing is my husband only has a reaction to ingestion of chocolate or nuts. And our owners are opening a 7th and 8th location next year, so obviously no nuts or coconut isn’t hurtin’ business.
Is peanut butter THAT good? Seems that many would risk their lives and those around them for a taste of the sweet, gooey, salivation inducing paste. I’m now questioning my own dedication to the stuff. I don’t think I’m committed enough to it. Time to re-evaluate my choices.
Would we be flag waving as much if we were talking about brussell sprouts?
Just seems like an odd choice of profession for someone who’s deathly allergic to nuts and/or coconut. Being that a variety of baked goods contain either both or one of these ingredients.
Surely you can understand people’s suprise, can’t you?
Dang superstar, first you don’t want people to have sex. Now you don’t want people to enjoy peanutty goodness? I think you’re just on a one person quest to suck all the fun right outta life.
Hey, I’ve thought of collecting outrageous statements by DtC’s. Provocateur-clown is his job here and he’s an artist (I’ve also noticed that he often apologizes when he steps too far off the curb).
Diogenes, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to tell you that I agree with you about 20% of the time, but you make me laugh out loud. You are an institution.*
*understands that someone will come along and make the inevitable adjustment to the sentence.
