myth of airborne peanut allergies

[eragon]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3222262/Airborne-peanut-allergies-flights-MYTH-Leading-scientist-claims-s-impossible-reaction-triggered-way.html

[rebekahc]

   It may be a "myth" for the vast majority of allergy sufferers, but it is most definitely NOT a myth for those of us who are on the unstudied most sensitive end of the spectrum.

[GoingNuts]

My son has suffered two serious airborne reactions - one to PN on an airplane, and once to the smell of cooking falafel (is allergic to both chick pea and sesame).

Airborne reactions are real.  I'm tired of reading that they are the product of hysteria. 

[CMdeux]

Yeah-- believe me, it's VERY real.  If you're one of the 1%ers, here, this kind of thinking is NOT NOT NOT helpful.  At all.

It's this kind of "debunking" that really ought to ONLY be coming from a physician who is plenty familiar with the patient in question.

Truly.  It's like telling a diabetic that blood sugars above 400 aren't possible if you're conscious.  Well, um-- for some people, very unusual people-- it IS. 

My thinking about this is to (as an advocate) point out that for someone who is on the sensitive end of the spectrum, FINE... don't believe that breathing it in is harmful.  Still-- if it can be SMELLED, then how much of the residue is present in that environment, hmm?  How safe is it?  How stressful for the person who smells DEATH everywhere around him/her, and knows that one accidental touch could result in just that, hmm?

Honestly, arguing whether or not allergen aerosols are real is about like arguing germ theory with someone who has no access to a microscope.  You can't win this argument in the first place-- they CAN'T really understand what you're saying, and to them the world really is that black and white.

So change the conversation by focusing on the ENTIRE environment. If you can smell it, contact is a risk, too.  PERIOD.

[PurpleCat]

This person should walk in someone else shoes, say my DD's - who gets in trouble when she is in a store that crunches peanuts to make peanut butter!

And then.....there it is again!   

It's mother's fault!

It's all about what we do and don't eat, yet again!  Bad Mommy!


Except please tell me, Mr.,  why when I kept cases of planter's peanut bags in my office to eat while pregnant because it settled my stomach, is my DD allergic to peanuts?  I even ate them during the time I was nursing her.....and yet, she is allergic... class 6.

So, this bad mommy says  to you!

[lakeswimr]

The article has various factual errors.  The % of the population with IgE mediated food allergies is higher than 1%.  Certainly heated foods and powered forms of allergens that are agitated can cause airborne reactions and allergists would all agree with this, whether or not they also believe that ultra sensitive people can react to other forms of airborne exposure. 

FAAN told me years ago that there was a study that found that if enough people open those small little peanut packs at aprox the same general time as happens when they are given out on airplanes, that enough peanut protein *can* get into the air filtration system to cause anaphylaxis in the most sensitive people.  It is rare but it can happen.

The article doesn't mention contact ingestion at all and that is a bigger risk on airplanes IMO than an airborne reaction. 

There have been several stories in the news in recent months of people being rushed off airplanes for serious ana reactions.  These are not imagined reactions.  Whatever the cause, those were very real situations. 

Even if there were no such things as airborne reactions. people could still have contact ingestion reactions so using this logic to justify not allowing any nut or other bans would be skipping over other important risks FA people face.

The idea that if you don't eat nuts you are eating a 'very restricted' diet is silly.  People can have a very varied diet without nuts.  The article was poorly done and will cause backlash against FA people and cause some people to be less likely to accommodate FA people.

I do wonder if some people who think they have had airborne reactions to room temp foods in situations where they did not eat anything or touch their eyes, nose, or mouth could had a mast cell disorder.  Unexplained ana events can be one of the main symptoms of mast cell disorders.  Few allergists seem to know that much about it so could miss the diagnosis. 

[spacecanada]

Add me to the list of people who have had watery eyes and a gushing runny nose form someone close to me eating a candy bar with nuts in it.  And that was before I knew they were eating it.  I saw them eating it as I was leaving the room.  Technically, that would have been use for epi if I followed my action plan to the letter, but I don't feel it was life-threatening anaphylaxis.  I could see the potential for breathing difficulty with loose or grinding nuts though, definitely.  I've been there at least once too.

[justme]

I have two children with PA. One is airborne reactive and one isn't. I guess we're only half crazy, then, huh?

[GoingNuts]