Nut allergy on plane

For a bit of context, the PDF document embedded here might be worth a read:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213219823007985

It’s worth being aware the airlines are highly data driven and will have looked long and hard at the incidence of episodes, risk of diversions etc, when forming their policies on nuts on board……

Is there any way that allergy sufferers can inform the airlines in advance of the gate, ideally when booking, of their needs so that fellow passengers get mouth more warning? If not airlines should definitely sort this out.

If we have a nut free flight announcement we do our best to adhere to it but that won’t be in time to have stopped us eating nuts prior to boarding the flight at breakfast, or in the airport. A warning as early as possible (prior to leaving home) would definitely help.

@HomeCookingWannabe

They obviously were, what exactly was said will have probably been down to company policy (it’s often scripted) and no doubt run past the lawyers.. especially if it was a UK airline….

All the one’s I’ve heard over the years have been an “ask”, albeit in a firm manner..

From a purely selfish angle, I can think of few things worse than being trapped on a plane while someone else's child has an anaphylactic reaction to nuts. I would find it hugely upsetting and, I'm not joking, it would probably, in some ways, ruin my holiday. I can recall the medical emergencies I've witnessed - epileptic seizures, heart attacks, even public vomiting and fainting. It's not nice, and god knows how much worse it must be for the family.
Not eating a Snickers bar on a flight is such an easy ask, can't understand people who object to doing a small thing to avoid a potential disaster, however small the probability.

No experience as I never fly with an airline that gives out free snacks, but that's a bit daft. Would make sense for airlines to not stock nut based snacks at all. I've not really considered it much, but I have been on a few flights where they've given that announcement so it makes sense for people to generally avoid taking foods with nuts in on a plane .

Making an announcement ordering/telling passengers not to eat nuts might be one such ( and a very strongly worded request by a passenger for a crew to do exactly that has led to one offload to my definite knowledge).

If you look at most airlines websites on this subject you’ll see the phraseology used is usually “ask other passengers not to eat nuts” followed by the standard caveat that the airline can’t guarantee a nut free environment/can’t police what people eat…

@notimagain

but they can’t do the impossible and should not do the illegal

No idea what the illegal is in this context.

👍

Great response!!!

Yawn

yeah last year, we had the message about avoiding nuts, as soon as the person had stopped speaking some dick in the chair in front opened and ate a Snickers, I mean really🙄

Oh good grief. You are a Mumsnet cliche.

@GermanBite

Not selling nut products in airport terminals would be sensible.

But again that doesn’t stop those who self cater from home.

TBH there’s a bit too much top trumping of medical conditions going on….if you’ve spent much time working on aircraft you’ll know quite a lot of people travel with conditions of some sort and generally most airlines try and make accommodation for everybody that needs it, as much as they can…but they can’t do the impossible and should not do the illegal or anything that’s outside company policy.

As a general point regardless of the condition I’d certainly not recommend arriving at the aircraft side and announcing to the crew that they have to do X or that they have to tell all the other passengers can’t do Y..

My child’s reaction to airborne particles is clawing at their throat/coughing as their airway is closing up

I don't take anything containing nuts on planes as a matter of course, but as a parent of a primary school child, maybe I'm just much more used to complying with this than other passengers.

Not selling nut products in airport terminals would be sensible.

My point is though that things with nuts in are not the only option. So while the would be ‘entitled’ (good choice of word), it doesn’t make them less of a dick to do so when there are other options.

Again as a diabetic it’s your husband’s responsibility to prepare for the very common possibility that he might be on a nut free flight

I think certainly ATM as the UK law stands these “nut free flights” are imaginary.

For example Virgin Atlantic’s T&Cs spell the general situation as it applies to UK airlines quite clearly…

“We also can’t stop other passengers from bringing (or eating) their own food onboard, which may include nuts”.

So frankly if someone has a crisis that means they have to eat a snickers bar they are entirely entitled to do so, but it would be best if they didn’t do so near a nut allergy sufferer.

Maybe we and food providers simply need to be more aware? Especially as I think that, unlike milk/gluten and other allergies (I have an anaphylactic allergy to quinoa), it is one of the rare airborne ones?

I’ve not bought nut containing items to take on planes for years because of the likelihood of the nut allergy announcement (in fact I think pretty much 80-90% of flights I’ve taken in 10 years have made this announcement). I don’t actually understand why nuts or nut containing products are sold at airports these days, or why some airlines still hand them out as free snacks. Just remove them.

Again as a diabetic it’s your husband’s responsibility to prepare for the very common possibility that he might be on a nut free flight and make sure he has something he can eat.
Asking the flight attendants to fix that for him is embarassing. He’s a grown man who knows how to manage his medical condition, and I suspect he takes nut bars for flights so he can make a big fuss if asked not to eat them.

He chooses nuts as a snack. that’s up to him, but let’s not confuse the issue by pretending nuts are the best thing for managing a hypo. Sugar is the best thing for that. Jelly babies. Glucose drinks. Snickers and nut bars aren’t on the list funnily enough, because they aren’t the best thing when you need to raise your blood sugar.

…and then people who are fans of such products will bring their own from home..

I know this is an Anglocentric forum but even in the States (which is really big on legislation on this type of subject and air travel) it’s accepted that just maybe total bans can’t be enforced, that individuals do have to take some responsibility for managing their conditions, and that in extremis an airline may decline to carry an individual if they think the risk is too high:

https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/flying-with-allergies/

It’s about time that they just ban all nuts on flights, I have an airborne reaction to nuts, the risk may be minimal but it’s not a risk I’d like to take, anaphylactic shock is serious and so far I’ve been lucky that my epi pens have been enough to keep me safe but I’ve needed to go to the hospital each time.
I also don’t understand why it’s such an issue to choose a nut/peanuts free snack, it’s only during a flight and they can eat all the nuts they want once they have left the plane.

My OH (t1 diabetic) carries nut bars as snacks to help control his blood sugar. When the 'nut free' request was made at the beginning of a long haul flight, he asked cabin crew for an alternative biscuit or bar. Guess what he was given... an energy bar full of nuts.

He’s a specialist in the microbiome, not an allergy specialist.

There are allergy specialists who disagree with him. Some are even experts in airborne allergies.

imagine that. Specialising in a medical field that someone who is not an expert in your medical field says isn’t possible.

Depends what you mean by the “smoking ban works”

Yes smoking is mostly banned but that doesn’t stop people trying to smoke on aircraft (and sometimes succeeding). There’s a ban on drinking your own alcohol on board many airlines but people do bring their own on (Duty Free) and despite the rules sometimes will drink it on board..

Unless you are planning on strip searching passenger nut products/products containing nuts are certainly going to get on board and be eaten.