They can have my nuts when they pry them from…(Uh, never mind!)

The war on peanuts has gone too far. It has now spread even to college football stadiums:

When the Northwestern Wildcats face off against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Ryan Field in Evanston on Saturday, something will be missing: peanuts.

Northwestern University is hosting its first peanut-free football game to give fans with allergies a chance to focus on the game instead of worrying about negative reactions to the popular stadium snack, which can range from mild irritation to life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

Huh? Is there some reason people who are allergic to peanuts simply can’t refrain from eating them? Why must they insist on taking away peanuts from everyone else? Some people claim to be so sensitive to peanuts that the mere presence of them — so they claim — can trigger a reaction:

That’s a big draw for Joyce Mason’s family, Northwestern fans from Gurnee. Mason’s daughter Julie, 13, has a potentially life-threatening peanut allergy. Safeguards such as wiping down the seats and traveling with two EpiPens to counter severe reactions aren’t always enough.

At a Cubs game a few years ago, Julie broke out in hives and began wheezing despite taking all of those precautions, Mason said, so now they attend only peanut-free games.

Peanut allergies affect about five of every 1,000 Americans and are on the rise, said Raoul Wolf, chief of the pediatric allergy and immunology section at University of Chicago Medicine. Though closed environments like airplanes pose a greater danger, stadiums can be “a huge risk,” Wolf said. “If you can smell the peanuts, there’s enough protein in the air to cause a bad reaction. For the most sensitive patients, it’s not a risk worth taking.”

That last claim is hotly debated.

The belief that touch, smell, or simple proximity to peanut products can trigger anaphylaxis has resulted in controversial bans on all peanut products from some entire medical and school facilities. Empirical testing has discredited some reports of this type and shown others to be exaggerated. Others remain in controversy. Residue on surfaces has been known to cause minor skin rashes, though not anaphylaxis. In The Peanut Allergy Answer Book, Harvard pediatrician Michael Young characterizes this secondary contact risk to allergic individuals as rare and limited to minor symptoms.[22] Some reactions have been noted to be psychogenic in nature, the result of conditioning and belief rather than a true chemical reaction. Blinded, placebo-controlled studies by Sicherer et al. were unable to produce any reactions using the odor of peanut butter or its mere proximity.[22]

I think they are full of crap. Anyway, as the peanut allergy affects a very small percentage of the population, that sort of rare extreme sensitivity would affect such a tiny number of people as to be inconsequential, and certainly not worth messing with the other 99.999%  of the (supposedly taxpaying and voting) public.

Not surprisingly, hysteria may be involved:

…there is an increasing body of medical opinion that, while there definitely are food sensitivities, the dramatic rise in frequency of nut allergies and more particularly the measures taken in response to the threat show elements of mass psychogenic illness, hysterical reactions grossly out of proportion to the level of danger:[15] “About 3.3 million Americans are allergic to nuts, and even more—6.9 million—are allergic to seafood. However, all told, serious allergic reactions to foods cause just 2,000 hospitalisations a year (out of more than 30 million hospitalisations nationwide). And only 150 people (children and adults) die each year from all food allergies combined.” Media sensationalism has also been blamed.[16]

Media sensationalism. Imagine that!

What other extreme sensitivities are there that might cause our ruling class betters to ban ordinary things used in everyday life?


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4 responses to “They can have my nuts when they pry them from…(Uh, never mind!)”

  1. WTP Avatar
    WTP

    First they came for the cigars, but I did not speak as I was not a cigar smoker…

  2. Eric Wilner Avatar

    I’m severely allergic to guns, and can develop spontaneous bullet holes just from being in the same room with one, or even in the same room with someone who has a picture of one at home!
    This doesn’t apply to guns owned by government agencies, of course. And it can’t happen in the presence of the James Randi Psychic Interference Field, so don’t ask me to prove it.

  3. chocolatier Avatar
    chocolatier

    Have you seen the episode of The Simpsons in which Principal Skinner bans peanuts from Springfield Elementary School because he is allergic to them?

  4. Paul Hsieh Avatar

    I’ll have to respectfully disagree. I think this particular move was a nice gesture to fans and a bit of good marketing.

    More at:

    Forbes: “Northwestern University Did Right In Offering A Peanut-Free Football Game”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulhsieh/2013/10/24/northwestern-university-did-right-in-offering-a-peanut-free-football-game/