School allergy policy and cosmetics - AIBU to think this is overkill?

Ah yes we never assume anywhere is totally nut free.

Just to point out that the experts don't advise making schools allergen-free as a strategy to adopt on its own. Instead they advise training and awareness programmes including instruction in epipen use and, crucially, how to recognise the signs of anaphylaxis.

At present, I'm not sure how many teachers would recognise the signs unfortunately. In my experience they don't often recognise asthma symptoms in their pupils and that's much more common.

From Anaphylaxis UK:
Lessons learnt...emphasise the need for schools to have robust allergy management systems in place, and for all school staff to have an understanding of allergies, to be able to recognise the signs of anaphylaxis and to have the confidence to manage an emergency situation.
We encourage a whole school allergy awareness approach, involving the education of all staff and pupils. The more staff and pupils who are allergy aware and can recognise the signs of anaphylaxis, the safer all pupils with allergies in school will be.

Is it possible some schools think banning allergens like nuts might be simpler than all the training involved? Especially as people sometimes aren't aware that things like dairy can cause fatal reactions too.

In in Ireland so I'm not sure of the situation in the UK, but here school staff are not obliged to administer medication if they don't want to. In addition most (80% approx) haven't received any training on anaphylaxis signs or epipen use.

You can't be concerned and then in the next sentence state you are bothered by the interference

Of course you can @tridento!
Getting the right balance is hard.

In the case of my class, it's my allergy we have to worry about. People very often forget about the staff!

Why do you think that not only health care professionals with expertise in the field but all the major allergy charities are not in favour of this approach then? The pressure groups who lobby for measures to keep people with allergies safer and run education programmes etc, explicitly advise against "free from" schools. They don't view it as neutral, they think it increases risk.
I don't know what specific data they base their advice on but as allergy safety is their entire raison d'etre and it seems to be a view held widely by people who are experts in the field I'm willing to believe they know what they are talking about.
What do you know that they don't?

Have they made a mistake with the castor oil thing though? I’ve never heard of anyone be allergic to that

Exactly. I can't imagine the stress of sending off a child who's anaphylactic to milk.

Of course you can. If the peanut butter residue on their hands from their sandwich or brownie represents a contact risk for you (ie they touch the door handle before you, transferring the allergen) it's a reasonable request. They don't have to do it of course but ime most people are happy to do something so simple.

Personally I wouldn't bother unless we were going to be in contact with them after the meal, but others need to be more careful.

Nut free schools also hurt children who have non-nut allergies which, because the other allergens are not banned, are not considered serious.

You can’t ask a stranger to wash their hands! Although not sure why a stranger would be in contact though.

Exactly what we do every time we go out, as well as having my own wipes for trains etc.

Yes I think I’ll end up making some mistakes come September, I don’t check the ingredients for food so unless something obviously contains nuts I might not realise.

Of course you can. You can say "Excuse me, I have a severe nut allergy. Would you mind wiping down the table when you're done and washing your hands when done (if you expect the person to remain in contact with you)?".

@Gwenhwyfar

But we don't know if somebody does have such a severe allergy
Schools have hundreds of people coming and going. They can't implement rules when there is someone and remove them when that person leaves only to reimplement when someone else joins.

Not really. You can't mitigate if someone sits next to you in a place eating nuts. You can't expect allergic dc to not attend school. If you want to be in society you have to live in a manner that supports the society

OP

but it got me thinking about whether it's irresponsible to still use these oils at home given that she will presumably take traces into school with her. FWIW, there are no known nut, seed, coconut or castor allergies in her class but I don't know about the rest of the school. I hate the idea of sending DD into school covered in an allergen but I'm not sure how much I want this policy to dictate what we use at home. DD has become anxious about this and has started checking all our product ingredients.

AIBU to think this is overkill?
So you think it might be irresponsible to use them and you would hate to send your dc into school covered in an allergen .... but you also don't want school policy to dictate your life and wonder if it's overkill.

Surely it's your apparent concern about your dc covered in an allergen that would dictate your home life no?
You sound disingenuous. You can't be concerned and then in the next sentence state you are bothered by the interference

Because the experts who know a lot more about this than me don't advocate nut free schools. The guidance has been posted upthread a couple of times.

As has been said, nut free schools can hurt people if it's assumed nuts aren't present when they in fact are, because people are human and make mistakes. Heck, I've come very close to packing my DD off to her nut free out of school club with her epipens for her peanut allergy and a hazelnut kinder hippo. It's easily done. Better to assume the allergen is present and avoid sharing food, wash hands etc.

Nut free schools don’t create a false sense of security.

You are comparing chalk and cheese. Castor oil is not a common allergen. It seems incredibly unlikely that someone would be anaphylactic to it.

There’s no evidence of a lot of things. I’ve never seen any data on this.

Considering you’re talking about the literal safety of a child’s life, why would you risk it? Nut free schools hurt nobody. Literally nobody.

You did not answer the question, just made a sarky comment.
Noot helpful

To be fair, it’s not the allergy I lose sleep over, it’s the attitudes of other people. If my son has an allergic reaction I’m 99% sure it’s going to be because due to someone else’s careless, negligent, or selfish action.

Airborne allergies do exist for severely allergic people.

Look at it this way, if you (a non allergic person) can be poisoned by a chemical if you eat it, are you saying that if I cook it and put you in a room with it, that the vapour won’t harm you?

Cooking the allergen is a risk as it becomes airborne.

The thing with peanut on a plane is different. That’s dust, yes it can be in the air recycled on a plane. In a normal room though, much less likely and most importantly you can leave the room. Allergic ppl can normally feel something is wrong and flee the hazard. Planes are a difficult place for allergy sufferers