Margy Natalie extrapolated from data available...



Olivers wrote:

G.R. Patterson III extrapolated from data available...



Olivers wrote:

One, two.......and at what number do you want the world to stop
serving peanuts? Do you want the airlines to be barred from
serving an inexpensive and at least filling snack beloved by many?

Just how did we get from warning labels on products containing
peanuts to a worldwide ban on them?

A number of groups (the allergic and "assorted nutters") have called
for banning peanuts on US airline flights, and several airlines have
apparently decided to go along rather than risk confrontation and bad
mouthing (or law suits)


Peanuts are different than other food allergies as the allergen can be
passed to the sufferer via airborne particles. My sister had one kid
in her class who was so allergic she couldn't grade papers in her
kitchen for fear off passing something on. Many schools now have
Peanut Butter free sections of cafeterias to control the issue.
Airplanes have terrible air that is constantly recirculated. I'd
rather have the nasty, dry pretzels than the kid next to be stop
breathing.

Here's the problem.....

If we are to hold the airlines responsible for potentially severe allergic
reactions and ban peanuts, how far from the gate must we extend the peanut
quarantine. How many travelers will have their Snickers or PB&J sammitches
confiscated by the Food Police? Can no airport food outlet use peanut oil
for frying? Sell any peanut product.

Airliners are "public facilities" and should provide reasonable general
access even to those handicapped by severly allergic. But can airlines be
held to ahigher, tougher standard than movie theaters? Ice Cream Parlors?
Circus tents? Barooms with peanut shells on the floor. ....andy other form
of public transporation such as tains, busses, cruise ships, etc.

The only fair and equitable method by which peanuts could be banned on
commercial a/c would require banning them in every public place, and I
suspect that the next round of successful US law suits will be by parents
demanding the right to send PB&J to school,in lunchboxes on the grounds
that denial removes the right to a specific "healthy choice".

Kids or adults, folks with potentially severe reactions to food allergies
are in relatively constant "danger", but just as society finds little it
can do (other than providing atropine hypos) for folks allergic to bees and
wasps, both being resistant to extermination and lots of urban habitat).
Where might you suggest society draw lines? A good question for those who
would regulate peanuts but not marijuana....

TMO