Nut allergy or just nuts...

[JustGav]

About time someone said what some people think. This whole nut allergy thing has become a bit silly in my mind. When you can buy packets of nuts with warnings like 'May contain nuts', I reckon it is just well... nuts

 

Harvard prof slams US nut allergy hysteria

 

A Harvard professor of medical sociology has agreeably warned that increasing hysteria over nut allergies in kids bears the hallmarks of mass psychogenic illness (MPI) - described as "a social network phenomenon involving otherwise healthy people in a cascade of anxiety".

 

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Nicholas A Christakis cites the extreme example of when a potentially fatal peanut was "spotted on the floor of a school bus, whereupon the bus was evacuated and cleaned (I am tempted to say decontaminated), even though it was full of 10-year-olds who, unlike two-year-olds, could actually be told not to eat food off the floor".

 

He also explains the case of one of his own kid's school, which indulges in the traditional ritual of selling wrapping paper and candy to raise funds. He says: "This year parents in our school were told that they could no longer pick up their purchases from their children’s classrooms. Instead they had to pick up their orders from a loading dock at specified times, to avoid a danger to the children."

 

He continues: "The danger? Some of the orders contained sealed tins of festive nuts. Out of an overabundance of caution the school decided not to allow any of the items on the premises."

 

The facts are these, Christakis insists: "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."

 

He adds: "Compare that number with the 50 people who die each year from bee stings, the 100 who die from lightning strikes, and the 45,000 who die in motor vehicle collisions. Or compare it with the 10,000 hospitalisations of children each year for traumatic brain injuries acquired during sports or the 2,000 who drown or the roughly 1,300 who die from gun accidents. We do not see calls to end athletics. There are no doubt thousands of parents who rid their cupboards of peanut butter but not of guns. And more children assuredly die walking or being driven to school each year than die from nut allergies."

 

Yup, sounds like a classic case of MPI, previously known as "epidemic hysteria", which commonly in small towns, factories and schools - described as easily susceptible to a fear of mass contamination - can "provoke anxiety to imagine a hidden, deadly danger in so innocent a thing as having a snack in kindergarten".

 

In reality, Christakis explains, MPI may actually exacerbate nut allergy problems, "resulting in children who, lacking exposure to nuts, are actually sensitised to them". The epidemic is fed, meanwhile by "efforts to reduce exposure to nuts [which] actually fan the flames, since they signal to parents that nuts are a clear and present danger" - which in turn "encourages more parents to worry, which fuels the epidemic".

 

Christakis reckons the cycle of "increasing anxiety, draconian measures, and increasing prevalence of nut allergies must be broken", and recommends treatment for MPI focussing on "the social and psychological nature of the epidemic" which apparently involves "providing reassurance ... [and] using a calm and authoritative approach".

 

Which, we reckon, can more or less be summarised as: "Your kids are not going to die from exposure to peanut butter. Now get a grip on yourself, you nutter." ®

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/10/nut_allergy_hysteria/

[Gaz Walker]

Just what everyone wanted to say first, but didn't.

 

Gaz.

[JustGav]

Just what everyone wanted to say first, but didn't.

 

Gaz.

 

I still joke every time I'm at tescos... I show the cashier the packet and ask does this contain nuts...

[tonyhawk]

Warning: This thread may contain nuts...

[JustGav]

Warning: This thread may contain nuts...

 

MAY??? I'm certified

[tonyhawk]

[michael]

There was a show on TV about crazy people thinking they had allergies the other night, I didn't watch it.

 

HTH.

[Scoboblio]

We've got a nut allergy sufferer in our family, and while it's useful that it's been bought to people's attention (years ago I heard someone declare 'there's no such thing as a nut allergy, it's all in your mind), the histeria is just ridiculous and more about preventing litigation than it is protecting people.

 

If you have a nut allergy and actually took the writing on food packets seriously, you'd never eat anything. EVERYTHING states that they 'cannot guarantee nut free', therefore rendering the whole thing useless. Might as well put 'might kill you, but if it does it's not our fault.'

[tonyhawk]

There was a show on TV about crazy people thinking they had allergies the other night, I didn't watch it.

 

In case you caught something?

[Snooze]

the histeria is just ridiculous and more about preventing litigation than it is protecting people.

 

Bingo. We have a winner.

 

So fundamentally, yet again, we can blame this on peoples' selfish greed, law firms' relentless ability to capitalise on that and the complete farce of a legal system that lets these sort of stupid claims through.

[JustGav]

We've got a nut allergy sufferer in our family, and while it's useful that it's been bought to people's attention (years ago I heard someone declare 'there's no such thing as a nut allergy, it's all in your mind), the histeria is just ridiculous and more about preventing litigation than it is protecting people.

 

If you have a nut allergy and actually took the writing on food packets seriously, you'd never eat anything. EVERYTHING states that they 'cannot guarantee nut free', therefore rendering the whole thing useless. Might as well put 'might kill you, but if it does it's not our fault.'

 

This is it... I have an intolerance to aspartame in that it kicks off my ADHD... Do I run around insisting they put warning labels on..NO...Do I cause mass hysteria...NO... I just read the label and choose a different product if required. People need to start living lives and making their own choices.

[RedM]

There was a school bus in this country that was evacuated and cleaned when a peanut was spotted rolling around on the floor.

[Thorin]

There was a school bus in this country that was evacuated and cleaned when a peanut was spotted rolling around on the floor.

 

Just like the one in the article?

[RedM]

Just like the one in the article?

 

Holy crap! It's an epidemic.

[benkei]

LOL @ nuts

[AndrewOW]

"exacerbate" is a word I hear more and more since Shaun of the Dead!

 

Some people are just nuts IMO.

[tonyhawk]

I think people like a good panic.

[Animal]

I like a good panic.

 

 

 

Oh, no wait, I like a good picnic. Sorry.

[tonyhawk]

http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/ato/tsrdaq/doc/pics/guide.jpg

[Gazboy]

"The facts are these, Christakis insists: "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."

 

He adds: "Compare that number with the 50 people who die each year from bee stings, the 100 who die from lightning strikes, and the 45,000 who die in motor vehicle collisions. Or compare it with the 10,000 hospitalisations of children each year for traumatic brain injuries acquired during sports or the 2,000 who drown or the roughly 1,300 who die from gun accidents. We do not see calls to end athletics. There are no doubt thousands of parents who rid their cupboards of peanut butter but not of guns. And more children assuredly die walking or being driven to school each year than die from nut allergies"

 

 

____________________________________________________

 

 

Just to pick up on these points:

 

1. The small number of hospitalisations would (or should) be because parents/adults are checking the ingedients of what they or their kids eat, you can avoid food you are alergic to.

 

2. Just because you are alergic to something doesn't mean you have to die or go to a hospital. Plenty of people are alergic to cats in this country but how many are hospitilised because of cat hair alergies?

 

3. Last time I checked, 150 of 10.2m is a bigger percentage than 100 out of 300m so why is the author comparing a specialist alergy to an accident that could happen to any living person?

 

4. 45,000 die in the USA in motor accidents? That is appauling!

 

5. Every comparison is unavoidable accidents, hardly a good point to base an arguement.

[caseys]

This is it... I have an intolerance to aspartame in that it kicks off my ADHD... Do I run around insisting they put warning labels on..NO...Do I cause mass hysteria...NO... I just read the label and choose a different product if required. People need to start living lives and making their own choices.

 

I really want to see you drink some diet coke now. I'm unsure why though.

 

Jambalaya to you too Sir.

[Gerry]

I seem to have a strange and uncharacteristic intolerance to people who have intolerances, nuts, wheat, lactose, etc etc.

To me they so often seem to be people who like being the centre of attention.

 

I’m sure (I think) that there are some (very few) people out there who have bad reactions to certain things, eating cat’s, being shot, etc but my gut reaction is that it’s mainly just a fashion.

 

Best not say any more

[Scoboblio]

I’m sure (I think) that there are some (very few) people out there who have bad reactions to certain things

 

You think right then. Take this as an (albeit very old) example from the BBC:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/377672.stm

 

In summary, he died from one bite of a chicken sandwich. I wonder if anyone thought he was attention seeking?

 

Now if you were that person and went round a friend of a friend's house for dinner, wouldn't you want to shout from the rooftops beforehand that you had a nut allergy, to make sure they understood?

 

My sister has a nut allergy, she's been in hospital at least once because a restaurant waiter didn't listen when she explained that she couldn't eat nuts. Usually they tell the waiter, who then fries everthing in nut oil.

[Gerry]

Sadly it sounds like your sister is one of those very few people who have a nut allergy.

 

That's why I said " that there are some (very few) people out there who have bad reactions to certain things" which I belive.

 

But I don't belive that everybody who claims to have problem has.

[Gerry]

What's more, all the pretenders make it worse for the few people who do have a proper problem, as it's been said above, manufacturers simply plaster "may contain nuts" on everything, which doesn't help anybody.