Acorn Alert!

[candyguru]

I think this is ridiculous and give us nut allergic people a bad reputation, as people will not take us seriously...  I have touched acorns all my life (I am PA), my daughter touches acorns (she is PA), I have never heard of anyone having a reaction to acorns.

And this woman doesn't have toddlers.. her kids are in high school, so what's the big danger?  Cutting down all the oak trees so there will be no acorns as they are dangerous to her teenage kids?     

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Fallen acorns a threat to kids with allergies, Vaughan mother claims
Published on Tuesday November 13, 2012
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A York Region mother is fighting to have oak trees removed near her child's school, fearing that acorns could pose a deadly threat to students with severe allergies.

Donna Giustizia said the young trees on property owned by the City of Vaughan next to St. Stephen Catholic Elementary School are littering the area with acorns. The school, meanwhile, is nut-free to protect students with potentially life-threatening anaphylactic allergies.

"A false sense of security is putting a sign on the door that says nut-free and there's nuts all over the place," said Giustizia, who has two teenage children with anaphylactic food allergies, one of whom attends St. Stephen.

"I'm not a crazy mom, I'm not asking for anything that's not already there."

Giustizia appeared before Vaughan's committee of the whole last week to plead for the removal of the trees.

Several councillors at the meeting questioned the precedent that removing the trees might set. Thornhill/Concord Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco wondered whether removing these trees would mean having to remove oak trees from other public properties where children with allergies might be exposed.

Councillors referred the matter to staff to prepare a report on the issue. City communications manager Ted Hallas said in an email that staff wouldn't release details of the report before it is presented to councillors.

Giustizia, who chairs the school's allergy committee, said she's not suggesting the city become nut-free. But she's worried about children who could come in contact with acorns at school, as well as the stress of being around a potential trigger of an allergic attack.

"The acorns are not only presenting a risk to the tree nut-allergic students but it is also becoming a great cause of anxiety amongst all students with nut allergies," Giustizia wrote in her request to appear before the committee, adding that acorns "can also be used to bully and torment children."

Peanuts and tree nuts are among some of the most frequent triggers for anaphylactic reactions. In recent years, many schools have instated often controversial bans on nuts and other foods that could cause a reaction in some students.

Dr. Paul Keith, an allergist at McMaster University, said acorns, if ingested, could trigger a reaction in someone allergic to tree nuts. But acorns are bitter and generally not eaten in North America, he pointed out.

"The only situation I could see is if they were bullied and forced to eat them," said Keith. "You really have to eat them to have a reaction."

Dr. Maria Asper, a pediatric allergist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, said skin contact with an allergen could cause a local reaction like redness or hives.

"I'm not aware of any reports of children having an anaphylactic reaction upon contact with acorns, so I'm not sure what the risk really is," said Asper. "For the most part, as long as they're just handled and not ingested, there's no scientific literature to suggest anyone has had a reaction."

May Moore, a spokesperson for York Catholic District School Board, said the board will respect whatever decision the city reaches.

Staff at the Woodbridge school are reminding students not to pick up acorns and custodians and administrators routinely go out to clean up the nuts, she said.

"Safety is certainly at the forefront," said Moore. "The school is going above and beyond to pick them up ... They've been very proactive, they're doing what they can."

According to the advocacy group Anaphylaxis Canada, it's estimated that about 6 per cent of young children have a food allergy. One in 50 is thought to be allergic to peanuts.

With files from Torstar news services


http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1286744--fallen-acorns-a-threat-to-kids-with-allergies-vaughan-mother-claims

[Jessica]

my dd has never had problems with acorns either. On the other hand, at my inlaws and at the barn where we keep our horse, there are lots of walnut trees and I'm pretty sure we've stepped on a few walnuts that have been crushed by cars, so are out of their shells. So far no problems...

[hedgehog]

I'm thinking it's not so much a crazy mom, as one that is uninformed.  The doctor probably said to avoid contact with any type of nuts.  Acorns are indeed nuts, so she probably is just doing literally what the doctor said, without additional research (or much common sense).  My guess is that if she asks her family's doctor, she will be told the acorns are OK, but she never thought to ask.

[becca]

My dd has never had an issue with acorns, either, but we do not have any in our yard.  It was at grandpa's house, so it was rare for her to handle them. 

Around here, it is a brief season where acorns are all over.  we were walking at Walden Pound, in an oak forest, pretty much, and I saw *no* acorns.  I remarked on it, as ds was collecting pine cones, and I was going to point out acorns, and could find none.   The squirrels gather them up.  So, it is about a month, where they are abundant, but they have natural cleaners, lol. 

[momtoAidenDeclan]

there are winters where our yard is COVERED with acorns - ds grew up playing with them and we never gave it a thought...never had a problem

[SilverLining]

said the young trees on property

You would think they would have had the sense to plant a different tree.   

[CMdeux]

I have seen a handful of reports from this community (all anecdotal, of course) of children with tree nut allergies having problems with acorns over the years.

It seems to be pretty rare, though, even with kids who have pretty high sensitivity.  My own DD has certainly never had any problem being around acorns-- though we certainly have cautioned her about HANDLING acorns and other fallen seed pods or nuts.

It seems to me as though the school is really handling things pretty well by picking them up regularly.  <shrug>

[candyguru]

said the young trees on property

You would think they would have had the sense to plant a different tree.   

But I would say there is no reason to plant a different tree.  Has anyone ever reported a serious allergic reaction to touching an acorn?  I have peanut allergy (since I was 2 years old) and played with acorns all the time when I was a kid.  My older daughter is 5 now, and she is peanut-allergic, tree nut allergic, sesame allergic (she is allergic to almost all of the top 9 allergens except milk and fish).  There is a large oak tree in our neighbourhood park, and she and her friends love gathering the acorns and playing with them in the playground, pretending they are cooking food, etc.  She has never had any type of reaction to holding the acorns. 

Unless you actually eat them, I don't think anyone would have a serious reaction to them.  The protein is enclosed in a tough leathery shell as well, so not easy to get inside an acorn.

Oak trees are one of the most beautiful trees we have in the neighbourhood (along with maples, beech, etc).  The acorns also provide food to the chipmunks, squirrels, birds (ie blue jays) etc.  So I really think oak trees and acorns are no threat to allergic kids and are beneficial to the neighbourhood....  you know, there is a much higher risk of injury/death just driving kids to school (ie car accidents) than there would be touching an acorn.

And these kids are not even toddlers.. they are teenagers.

Does this mother never take her kids to nature hikes?  The forest is filled with oak trees... High Park, Edward Gardens, Bruce Trail...  she said the oak trees fill her tree nut allergic kids with anxiety...  I think she is causing the anxiety.  They are teenagers now, they should be experiencing life, not hiding from a non existent threat of some scattered acorns on the ground.

Anyway, I guess they could have planted some other trees in the schoolyard, but you know what?   Lots of kids are allergic to maple pollen and birch pollen, so no matter what you plant, there will be people who object.

(note:  I could see if they had planted walnut trees, etc that this would be more of a concern, but oak trees/acorns?)

[candyguru]

oops  double post

[CMdeux]

I agree with you, CG-- at this point, if this is causing "anxiety" as this mom claims, well...




she probably ought to consider remediation of THAT problem first and foremost.

[candyguru]

I agree with you, CG-- at this point, if this is causing "anxiety" as this mom claims, well...




she probably ought to consider remediation of THAT problem first and foremost.

yes, if her kids were young (ie: 5 years old) perhaps there could be a bit of anxiety as young kids can get anxious at times....  but for teenagers to feel anxiety because of some acorns scattered on the ground seems to indicate these teenagers need to have the anxiety issue looked in to:


"The acorns are not only presenting a risk to the tree nut-allergic students but it is also becoming a great cause of anxiety amongst all students with nut allergies,"

[CMdeux]

...and really, how presumptuous of her to claim that she is speaking for OTHER people's children on this matter.   

[twinturbo]

I would think at least by US law that necessary, appropriate and undue burden would come in to play. If it's not one of their allergens, they're of an age and maturity to deal with being around acorns and the cost of removing trees based on the former.

[rebekahc]

I'm PA and TNA.  I grew up in a house with 76 oak trees in the yard.  I had PLENTY of exposure to acorns and never once had a problem from them.  My oak pollen allergy is pretty bad (like after I moved to college I couldn't spend much time at home during pollen season because my tolerance had gone down without the constant exposure), but still no reaction to the acorns I cracked open and played with pretty often.  I am contact sensitive to tree nuts and aerosol sensitive to peanuts, FWIW.

Oh, and why does her teenaged child go to St. Stephen ELEMENTARY school?

[candyguru]

An editorial from today's Globe and Mail (Canada's national newspaper)

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So there it is. A mother in a Toronto suburb has asked city hall to cut down the oak trees near her children's schoolyard because the acorns they drop to the ground belie the school's claim that it is a "nut-free zone."

"A false sense of security is putting a sign on the door that says nut-free and there's nuts all over the place," Donna Giustizia is reported to have said. Those who position themselves as guardians against political correctness and extreme parenting are having a field day. For many, we have now achieved the apogee of modern narcissism, where the mildest fear and the slightest offence are license for any of us to demand satisfaction.

But before piling on, let's step back for a moment. Ms. Giustizia is not off-base when she says it is odd for a school to say it is a "nut-free zone" when there are tree nuts littering its grounds. People who are familiar with the dangers of anaphylactic allergies know that the slightest contact with an allergen can lead to severe reactions and even death. It's rare, but it happens. These rarities scare parents and have led to a ban on peanuts in most schools. Everyone ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at school a generation ago; now no one does because of the threat they pose to one in 100 children. The ban is a source of frustration for that vast majority of parents whose children aren't allergic, but it is nonetheless accepted as a needed precaution.

So in that light, how out of place is it for a mother to worry about an acorn getting cracked open and the tree nut inside somehow coming into contact with her allergy-prone children? Modern parenting has become an exercise in making sure the worst never happens. We arm our children against every possible harm, and we demand that their schools join in the exercise. Is it possible to go too far any more?

Yes, and now we know how. A bitter nut that no one eats raw, that falls from a tree in a rock-hard shell that requires a hammer to crack, and for which there is no evidence that contact with the shell poses a risk, cannot logically be included in the list of things schools need to protect our children against. It is logical, however, to assume that if we start to ban acorns from schoolyards, we will soon have to ban them from public parks, and then from private property because of the risk of an ill-informed squirrel transporting one onto public lands, and we will have veered into the absurd. As long as the school continues to make an effort to remove the acorns from its property and Ms. Giustizia warns her children to stay away from any stray ones, that is more than enough.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/editorials/banning-acorns-thats-one-nut-too-far/article5271113/