As the mother of child with multiple severe food allergies, one of the potential situations that frightens me the most — more than sending her to school, more than leaving her in daycare — is the possibility of her coming into contact with a peanut or treenut whilst on a flight. If she were to pick up a wayward nut that had found its way into the corner of her seat and pop it in her mouth… well, it just doesn’t bear thinking about. Trapped thousands of feet up in the air, unable to get to a hospital or urgent medical help… oh, my blood runs cold at the thought. Yes, there are Epi-pens, but these are not cures and they are not guarantees — sometimes they stop the reaction, sometimes they just buy you time, and sometimes they can’t do anything at all. An Epi-pen in the nappy bag means we’re as best prepared for exposure as we can be, but it’s no excuse to court disaster by walking blithely into a high exposure situation.
M wants all of us to go home for a fortnight next summer and I’ve had a look at Continental’s website for reassurance. Thankfully, they don’t serve bags of peanuts anymore, but they point out that some of their other in-flight snacks may contain nuts — and I am nervous. It makes no difference to me if that peanut in the corner of E2’s chair has come out of a packet of peanuts or a packet of some mixed snack containing peanuts — the result would be the same, and that scares the tar outta me. Continental says, “we strongly encourage you to take all necessary medical precautions to prepare for the possibility of exposure during flight,” …as if that were really possible. The main medical precaution is to simply avoid near exposure to the allergen — nearly impossible in a small metal tube with a closed ventilation system — and the secondary precaution is to administer the Epi-pen and then go immediately to hospital in case of continued or secondary reactions.
Now, I do understand that the airlines can never guarentee a completely allergen-free environment — I know this — but there are a lot of simple things they can do to significantly reduce the risks. A lot more than a lot of them are doing at the moment. And that’s why I am chuffed to discover that Allergic Living magazine has started a letter-campaign to Canada’s two main air carriers, to encourage them to take these extra steps.
I urge you to read this article — no, I ask you, personally, especially if my fears and hopes seem over the top to you. And then I ask you to consider clicking on this link and adding your letter to the pile that Allergic Living will be able to deliver to Air Canada and WestJet. And then I ask you send Allergic Living a quick email (info@allergicliving.com) asking them to extend this campaign to the other major carriers in the US and the rest of the world.
For the majority of people, this is a non-starter of an issue — it doesn’t affect them and means nothing to them. I understand this. But for those with food allergies, this is real life or death stuff — and yet so easily, so frustratingly preventable. If you could spare a moment to click on that link, perhaps we can effect this one small change that means that, in future, the only thing that food allergy sufferers have to fear in the air is that same fiery crash that everyone else is trying not to think about.
Stumble it!
I sent a letter. I hope they can get the airlines to do something about it. I just don’t understand why people get so upset over this issue. Who bloody cares if you can’t eat peanuts or shellfish on a flight? It’s a few hours out of your life and it could save someone else’s. It seems incredibly selfish to me that so many adults would gladly and smugly eat something around an allergic person just to teach them some kind of sadistic lesson, or whatever their reasoning is. I don’t even know anyone with a life-threatening food allergy but it’s common sense to me.
‘Trapped thousands of miles up in the air…’ you don’t just have to worry about peanuts stuck in the corner of a seat. You really need to consider the risks of depressurisation, the deep cold of outer space, the lack of breathable atmosphere, re-entry strategies, and most importantly of all, the effect of zero gravity on peanuts. Yes, thousands of miles above the earth a peanut can float. At least in space no one can hear you scream.
I am extremely amused by my writer/editor/sci-fi/comedian husband.
But, back to what you wrote. Sufferers of nut allergies are not so rare as people may think. I can not understand why when something can be so deadly to some that schools, restaurants, airlines…etc can not make the effort to make sure that none of their food contents come in contact with nuts? As someone who has been a lifelong friend to someone who suffers from various allergies (perfumes, fragrances…etc) I know how serious this is and how it can keep someone from living life to the fullest. I will join in writing my letter. Thanks for making us aware of this.
Ha ha hahaaaa!!! Yes, NCMrsD, your lovely husband is absolutely right!!! When I started writing that sentence, I was thinking of someone in a plane crossing the Atlantic and being thousands of miles from the nearest hospital… and then I realised it’s just as dire a situation even on a domestic flight that might even be directly over a hospital but still the allergic person can’t get to that hospital… so, I changed my sentence but forgot to change ‘miles’ to ‘feet’!!! Ha hahahahaaaa — that’s what too much Dr Who will do to you!
NS — thank you so much for sending that letter. I appreciate it personally. One step at a time, one letter at a time, I do believe the landscape will change for sufferers of food allergies.
Strawberry, T & I were on a flight several months ago (here in the US – I forget which carrier though, possibly Air Tran, or more likely JetBlue?) where, after boarding, all passengers were asked to refrain from eating anything they had brought on board containing peanuts and told that none of the peanut-containing snack options would be offered due to a passenger with a severe peanut allergy. The airline offered to give extra snacks to people inconvenienced by this.
I did hear a few passengers grumble but everyone complied. Something like this may be a possibility for you, especially if you arrange it in advance.
Just thought I’d say that we always tend to fly with Continental and we have been served peanuts. Several times. Its never on the long haul flight (Houston to London) just from our local airport to Houston. But with your little ones allergies I’d call and ask about what snacks your specific flight will be serving.
Abigail, that is so encouraging! That’s really the gist of what Allergic Living is asking for: for the airlines to have clear allergy policies which they then live out in practice. In the article, there were several cases where customers had been told (by reservations/customer service) that nuts would not be served on the flight, and then they actually were.
However, my personal fear — that wayward peanut lodged in the fold of the seat cushion — wouldn’t be solved by keeping the current flight nut-free, as it probably would have been there from the flight before (this, of course, applies equally to residue of nut oils on the tray-table and seat arms — which is equally as dangerous). Given that, and the ease with which nut-snacks could be replaced with non-nut snacks, I think it really would be just good, prudent business sense for the airlines to switch to non-nut snacks. It just isn’t that hard to do and the benefits (in terms of less liability for the airline) is huge.
[...] 18, 2009 by Strawberry The subject of yesterday’s post continued to roll around in my mind all last night and again today, and there was one thing that [...]
A severe allergy can be scary. We have a client who has a severe latex allergy. She cannot even be in a room where there were balloons the day before. We cannot use pens with the rubber grippies anywhere in our warehouse. I don’t know how she can manage outside of our contained latex-free buildings, and even then she is administered the epi-pen on a regular basis. Oh, and then the nurse has to stand at the entrance and demand of the EMTs that yes, they really do have to take off those rubber gloves containing latex.
I flew with my nut allergy kid on american airlines first class. AA told me that they would not refrain from serving warm nuts in first class because “their clients really look forward to them and expect the nuts after flying with them for so many years”
AA does not have any nut safe food served on their planes, and will not ask others to refrain from eating nuts on the plane.
In conclusion, AA does not want children and adults with nut allergies on their planes
That’s true regarding the lone peanut stuck in a seat, S. I have been surprised to see peanuts return on flights lately, it seemed like they weren’t being offered for many years but suddenly this past year or two I have seen peanuts being offered again. Probably because they’re an inexpensive snack (since airlines have moved away from meals, snacks are more common) that take up a small amount of space for a serving size? Whatever the reason, I think it’s foolish