Today, we are introduced to The London Free Press columnist Julie Ryan, and a column that is written in the shadow of ignorance.
According to Ms. Ryan, Nut Allergies are "low risk allergies":
Peanut butter is a cheap, easy, healthy lunch for kids, and nuts are ingredients in many foods kids love. Banning them from the classroom ought to be as rare as the actual incidence of the serious allergy.
Let's talk about "rare" here. According to Anaphylaxis Canada:
Approximately 1-2 percent of Canadians live with the risk of an anaphylactic reaction. More than 50 percent of Canadians know someone with a life-threatening allergy.
That doesn't mean that 50% of Canadians know someone with a nut allergy, but that 50% of Canadians know somebody who has an anaphylaxis risk.
These allergies change over time, and you don't get any warning when your body's reaction is going to "go over the top" and kill you. If you are lucky, you have enough awareness to call for help before the reaction knocks you out. If you aren't so lucky, there's a funeral in your family's future.
Ms. Ryan may believe that these allergies are "rare", and therefore don't warrant precautions and attention.
My experience leads me to a different conclusion.
Looking around my circle of family and friends - three people in my immediate family have varying degrees of sensitivity to nuts and one is allergic to bee stings; a very dear friend is in the "violently allergic reaction" category when nuts are involved; and I have known more than a few others who cannot eat mushrooms or seafood because of the reactions they have. And that's just in my relatively small circle of friends and family.
It's not as "uncommon" as Ms. Ryan likes to think, and I'd much rather have the precautions taken before we find out the hard way that someone had an undiagnosed allergy.
2 comments:
And of course peanuts and nuts are among the more common of the allergies.
However, to be fair, until I went "anaphalactic" I didn't have a full understanding what an allergy was.
Sorry Ms. Ryan, it's not just an inconvenience, it's a matter of death... or life if you're lucky.
Perhaps you ought to go shopping one day and read some of the food packaging - where it says "may contain nuts/peanuts" just substitute your choice of "may contain cyanide" or "may kill you" - your choice.
Sheesh! Can we please take some of these columnists out and SHOOT them?
Shellfish is also a deadly trigger for anapyhlaxis. Often overlooked, but has sent many people to the hospital or worse. Anything but a minor inconvenience when you have to save someone's life, and hopefully they carry an epi pen with them.
Oh, and this woman...is a moron.
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