I love peanuts, and peanut butter. However, between .04% and .06% of the humans in this country are allergic to the stuff. (2.3% are allergic to seafood, which I also love.)
While I feel sorry for those who suffer from such an allergy, I was a bit puzzled by the angry reaction of parents to a new Cheerios product that contains peanut butter:
For these parents peanut butter, actually anything peanut, is the enemy. They’re faced with protecting their children in a world where everything from cookies to cold cuts can contain peanuts. And while those of us whose children can safely eat everything like to scoff at allergies, the reality is that the tiniest speck of peanut dust can send some kids into life-threatening anaphylaxis shock.
So it’s no surprise that some parents are concerned about General Mills new Multi Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios.
“People are very upset about it,” said Gina Clowes, founder of Allergy Moms, a national support group, told the Washington Post. “I know some allergy families that currently buy Cheerios are vowing not to buy them at all for fear of cross contact while processing and to avoid confusion in their own homes.”
Clowes explained that the new Cheerios are indistinguishable from the regular flavor so it’s easy for preschoolers, who are notorious for walking around with little baggies of cereal, to mix up their snacks with friends.
The article goes on to cite the recent death of a seven year old girl who according to police was given a single lethal peanut by another child during recess.
My reaction is that if you have a kid who has this rare allergy, you need to be very careful. Because it is a fact of life that peanuts, peanut products, peanut dust could be anywhere. The Wiki peanut allergy page prominently features this “Nut Warning” sign:
Unfortunately, I expect to see increasing demonization of the peanut industry, and lawsuits springing up everywhere. This might even trigger a rise in prices of peanut butter. What I can’t understand is under what theory the 99.95% should have to pay more for a food product simply because the .05% that shouldn’t be eating it occasionally does.
Why single out peanut butter? Is the seafood industry being similarly treated? Why aren’t parents complaining about the marketing of tuna fish, fish sticks, and fish filet sandwiches despite the fact that people are allergic?
Geez, now that I’m thinking about it, a lot of people are allergic to dogs [Coco’s feelings could be hurt by this, so I won’t tell her] and cats. In fact, I am allergic to cats. What this means is that I have to limit the amount of time I spend in a cat household; one time I was a house guest in a particularly catty environment, and it got so bad that I was literally gasping for breath and had to be driven to the drugstore for relief. I manage. Having an allergy is just part of life. If I were allergic to peanuts, I would definitely not buy the new peanut butter Cheerios, but I would not freak out over its marketing the way these parents are. Perhaps there is something about the way having children influences people’s thinking that I do not quite understand. It seems to bring out the communitarian impulse. Like all of our children are all of our children so we have to take care of them and are all under a constant duty to be vigilant.
But wouldn’t the communitarian approach also include examining causes of the allergy? An intriguing study contrasted Israeli children with British children. (And what if Americans are too hygienic?)
The exact cause of someone developing a peanut allergy is unknown. A 2003 study found no link to maternal exposure to peanuts during pregnancy or during breast-feeding,[5] though the data show a linkage to the amount of time a child is breastfed. The same study indicated that exposure to soy milk or soy products was correlated with peanut allergies. However, an analysis of a larger group in Australia found no linkage to consumption of soy milk, and that the appearance of linkage is likely due to preference to using soy milk among families with known milk allergies.[6][7] It’s possible that exposure to peanut oils in lotions may be implicated with development of the allergy.[8][9] Another hypothesis for the increase in peanut allergies (and other immune and auto-immune disorders) in recent decades is the hygiene hypothesis. Comparative studies have found that delaying introduction of peanut products significantly increases the risks of development of peanut allergies,[10][11] and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in response to ongoing studies that showed no reduction in risk of atopic disease, rescinded their recommendation to delay exposure to peanuts along with other foods. They also found no reason to avoid peanuts during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.[12] A study conducted jointly in Israel and United Kingdom in 8600 children noted a nearly 10 fold increase in incidence of peanut allergy among U.K. children compared to Israeli children. It was found that Israeli children were given peanut at a much younger age than those in the U.K. following recommendation of pediatricians in the U.K.[13] Pediatric Associations in Britain and Australia recommend delaying introduction until age 3 and have not changed their recommendations as of March 2009.[citation needed]
From a public health standpoint, preventing the peanut allergy might make more sense than focusing on protecting those who are vulnerable. It seems to me that the latter should be the responsibility of the parents, because once it is made the responsibility of schools, then the bureaucratic zero tolerance mindset will kick in, and pretty soon the 99.95% will find themselves at risk of being in trouble over peanuts. Bad boys who haven’t been taking their speed will be slipping each other deadly substances like peanut butter, or leaving high potency peanut M&Ms in places where they might be found and eaten. Zero tolerance peanut investigation teams will be required. Trained dogs could be brought in to sniff the students’ lunch boxes.
Oh, I forgot. Lunch boxes are already banned. And the metal ones have been banned since the 70s. They’re “weapons,” natch.
You’d think I would have known that. (So I take back what I said about trained dogs sniffing lunch boxes; instead they could sniff back packs, book bags, and pockets, if such “private” things are still allowed.)
It’s tough for a non-parent like me to keep up with the changing times.
What a safe world we live in. Really and truly safe.
Safe for everything!
Except freedom.
MORE: While I thought I was being sarcastic above, I needed to look no further than my own town to find that zero nut tolerance is already being implemented:
Some Ann Arbor elementary schools have implemented peanut-free or nut-free policies. Bryant, Northside and Pattengill do not allow students, staff, or anyone else entering the school to bring with them anything containing peanuts or tree nuts. AAPS has also “eliminated all known nut and nut products in elementary hot food menus and does not use vendors who knowingly prepare nut products,” according to the Food Allergy Handbook.
Some readers might argue “Well, what do you expect from a ditzy left wing town like Ann Arbor?” I would warn them that nutty ideas like this spread, and that before you know it, the nut police be coming for your nuts. According to one writer, in California, they’re even banning nuts in the home!
More and more schools and school districts are banning peanut products from the classroom. In 2007, one California school district even went so far as to ban all peanut products from the homes of students. Parents of peanut allergic kids are thrilled with knowing their kids won’t be exposed to the dreaded nut.
There are in fact dangerous nuts out there.
They are ruining what used to be a free country.
(I know, I know. “They can have my nuts when they pry them from my….)
MORE: In related news, schools are electronically monitoring children to detect obesity-inducing habits:
A group of Long Island students will soon be wearing controversial electronic monitors that allow school officials to track their physical activity around the clock.
The athletics chair for the Bay Shore schools ordered 10 Polar Active monitors, at $90 a pop, for use starting this spring. The wristwatchlike devices count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in a bid to combat obesity.
The information is displayed on a color-coded screen and gets transmitted to a password-protected Web site that students and educators can access.
It goes without saying that the parents don’t know what is going on. And why should they? They have ceded child-raising to the schools, which means the only people who object are crackpots.
…privacy advocates and parents worry that schools are using electronic monitors in phys ed without families’ knowledge or consent.
“I didn’t even know it was going on, and I’m active in the school,” said Beth Huebner, of St. Louis.
Her son, a fourth-grader, wore a Polar Active monitor in class without her OK last fall at Ross Elementary School.
“We have gotten no information about the Web-site security or where the data will go,” Huebner said.
“When you get into monitoring people’s biological vital signs, that’s a pretty intrusive measurement,” said Jay Stanley, of the American Civil Liberties Union. “There are key privacy interests at play.”
Hey, at least the ACLU seems to care, if weakly. Liberals and conservatives don’t seem to be bothered about privacy interests.
I’m wondering whether liberal and conservative communitarians agree that privacy is wrong.
Comments
10 responses to “Shouldn’t we be cracking down on nuts?”
Three of my four kids have cat allergies. The First Mate loves cats.
Me? I don’t care much for them myself. If they were banned I wouldn’t much miss them.
Parents with peanut-allergic kids need look no further than the vast array of sanitizing products they’ve doused their homes & kids with since birth.
They also need to look closely at themselves and the “bubble mentality” modern parenting has become.
I don’t know about cause and effect on peanut allergies.
I’m a PBJ-sandwich fan, and my younger brother was allergic to peanuts as a toddler.
We (as a family) adapted. He survived.
I guess those Occupiers were right… the 0.05% are ruining our lives.
I was born in 1947.
Somehow I managed to live most of my life never hearing of peanut allergies.
First time I remember hearing about them was perhaps 10-15 years ago.
I agree that it is a serious problem.
But how come there was no awareness of it until recently? Is it something that had not been identified before?
John Henry
Parents of peanut allergic kids are thrilled with knowing their kids won’t be exposed to the dreaded nut.
It’d be interesting to know if there was even a single child in that district who was actually seriously allergic to peanuts (rather than having the more common mild reaction or no allergy at all, since as far as I can tell most “peanut allergy” claims are purely psychological).
And given that anaphylaxis has never yet been shown from non-ingestive contact*, I say fire the damned lot of them.
(*Sure, breathing it in would count, but you’d have to be involved in cooking or crushing them in industrial quantities, not being next to someone eating a handful.)
So one citizen’s bad luck trumps all the others’ liberty. There’s a recipe for tyranny.
It’s interesting to note: Peanut allergies are unheard of outside of the first world. Third world countries have never heard of peanut allergies; and peanuts are not nuts, they are legumes just like peas and beans. I would be interested in knowing how many peanut allergic kids are also allergic to peas and beans.
I have the amazing luck of having not one, but two out of three kids with nut allergies. Hand sanitizer! LMAO.
No, I’m not a p@ssy or a pencil-necked geek. I’m a Texican, grew up an athlete and load my own ammo. No, I’m not a germaphobe. There are a lot of medical conditions that were never identified until recent years. So should we presume that they never existed, or that they were never identified or misdiagnosed? When I grew up there were an awful lot of frail or sickly kids, and everybody that had trouble breathing had an “asthma” and nobody thought, “hmmm, I wonder what set that off?”
You don’t need to wonder whether kids are really allergic to peanuts, I’ve already experienced it for you.
I can and do control their input outside of school, that’s my responsibility. But once he walks into the school, I have no control. Elementary school kids are not exactly paragons of judgement, that’s why it’s important to educate and do what we can to minimize the risk.
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