AIBU to think a ban should be in place for nuts on planes?

[4691IrradiatedHaggis]

As an airborne allergy sufferer myself, it's been kind of worrying over the last few days to see an insistent few insist they don''t exist.
I suffer from one. They really do. I've seen them. Suffered first hand.
If you don't suffer from one, or know someone who has, count yourself lucky.
I have eyes swell up. Doesn't take a leap of imagination to think that throats could too if suffering a more severe reaction.
Difference with me is that I'm not hundreds of miles up in the sky away from medical access. Being in an airport/public place not comparable to being locked in an aeroplane, thousands of miles from land.

This is what I signed earlier. Amy's lucky (lucky?!) in that she could walk away only brain damaged from a restaurant and survive as there was great help available on ground.
What chance would she have had thousands of miles up in the air and hundreds of miles from help? A risk easily eliminated.
www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-ban-nuts-and-nut-products-from-airlines?recruiter=52852902&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition.guest_form_reduction

I agree they should be banned on planes. Obviously people can't be trusted to not have them with their G&T when requested.

Also, if you are told by airline staff there is a nut allergy sufferer onboard and you still chose to open your nuts and cause them harm you should be prosecuted. You have knowingly and purposefully put someone in danger.

I'm totally flummoxed that people believe not eating nuts for a few hours is so terrible they'd rather even risk someone being ill or possibly dying. It's bizarre.

I'm still chortling at the bizarre way the previous thread ended. I've never seen anyone quite so desperate to have the last word :-D

I was thinking of people buying the nuts on the ground and taking them onto the plane opening them in the plane after take off.

See, to me, I can see that you can't always interpret what people are going to buy on ground.
It's always going to be open to someone buying a packet of dry roasted or whatever, surely and taking them on board?
You're one poster though. Infinitely less of a threat being one person potentially opening a bag they've brought on with them than a whole aircraft opening a hundred or so bags of peanuts.

Education would be a key part of a ban.

If you don't sell nut products in the airport then people are less likely to eat them on board.

If you ban them and explain why they are banned then people are less likely to eat them on board.

If you don't serve them on the plane then people are less likely to eat them on board.

Sure there will always be some idiot who not only brings nuts on board but then eats them in defiance of all announcements and requests to the contrary. But the last thread showed overwhelmingly that the vast majority of people would perfectly happily forgo nuts on a plane if they knew the implications.

Those of us with allergies or with loved ones who have allergies will still always be as prepared as we can be, just as we are when we eat out, or go to a party where food is served.

Just reducing the risk makes such a difference.

I'm sure someone will be along in a minute asking me for a peer-reviewed study that proves every point I've made :-)

I'm still chortling at the bizarre way the previous thread ended. I've never seen anyone quite so desperate to have the last word :-D*

Just had a look, even more multiple posts from same posters desperate to make the thread shut since I last looked and posted!
Baffling, as airborne allergies exist and I can't see why anyone would deny otherwise.

I agree. Nuts should be banned on planes. As others have said, an extremely mild inconvenience Vs life threatening reaction. No contest.

4961 but your missing the point, if they sell them in the airport people are more likely to bring them onto the plane.

You're missing the point though that if they banned selling as well as distributing them on the planes with drinks, that's drastically cutting down on the chance of them being opened mid air.
Shops on the concourse whilst you buy a paper to read and something to snack on - not so easily going to be a bag of nuts, could be anything.
Many bags of nuts opened on the plane though as a snack with the g and t, not so much.
Why run that risk when they are so dangerous to some?

Those of us with allergies or with loved ones who have allergies will still always be as prepared as we can be, just as we are when we eat out, or go to a party where food is served. Just reducing the risk makes such a difference.

I think that's the key. Reducing, not eliminating. Can never eliminate altogether but reducing life threatening allergens is definitely the way to go.

The last few flights I've been on refused to serve nuts because someone with a allergy was on board. Would you consider this enough op if all airlines pledged to do this. I'd have no problem with a ban. I bet we've all gone 10 hours without eating our fave food and survived. Last year there was a dc in my ds class so allergic to nuts pre- school sent a letter home asking that no one ate cereal with nuts in before going in. Do not know how his poor parents coped!

I have a peanut allergy and flew long haul with Singapore Airlines a few years ago. I told them about the allergy, I explained why I was carrying syringes, needles and adrenaline ampoules around with me and they still refused to serve an alternative to nuts, or to request that people in our cabin didn't eat them.

Sure enough, they handed round bags of nuts (my family declined!) and when several people opened their bags at around the same time, I reacted fairly spectacularly. I didn't die, neither did I seek medical attention, I treated myself with the best I had available and told my husband to press the bell if I became unconscious. As the air was recirculated the dust obviously dropped to lower levels and I was OK. It was bloody scary.

I am not really interested in statistics that demonstrate the very small number of serious reactions occurring in flight as was posted on the previous thread. In my opinion, one preventable allergic reaction is one too many. Why are some people so insistent that their right to eat a nut based snack trumps my right to breathe?

I don't think we need a blanket ban of nuts on all flights. I do think that when someone informs the cabin crew of a serious nut allergy, they should find an alternative snack to serve with the drinks and request that people not eat nuts for the duration of that flight only.

I know there is still the issue that you have no control over what the person sitting next to you on the flight was eating before they boarded and that you might still react to peanut dust on their clothing if you are very unlucky. But just because you can't mitigate one risk doesn't mean you shouldn't try and mitigate those you can.

Agree that nuts should not be served on planes, but IMO this issue is for businesses (airlines) to address rather than for government regulation.

I'm totally flummoxed that people believe not eating nuts for a few hours is so terrible they'd rather even risk someone being ill or possibly dying. It's bizarre.

I don't think there are that many around who think like this though. As pp said, you've still got potential risks if someone on your plane ate/was in contact with nuts prior to the flight, so banning nuts while on the plane needs to be very obviously advertised and isn't going to solve the problem.

Going a bit far to say someone should be prosecuted for causing harm by nut exposure though - as it stands it's easy to miss one announcement in many, while you're settling in. Surely it makes more sense for those affected to make sure they have epipens etc available. I would assume most ppl of air travel age have been exposed to nuts already and would be aware of any allergy? Have similar available for staff to use onboard - don't airlines do this already?

banning nuts while on the plane needs to be very obviously advertised and isn't going to solve the problem.

I don't think they're saying stopping the sale/distribution of nuts on a plane will solve the problem, though.
More of an elimination of a real, and obvious risk of potentially hundreds of bags being opened as to one unthinking/oblivious person who may or may not have had peanut butter for breakfast before boarding the plane.

Surely it makes more sense for those affected to make sure they have epipens etc available

Epipens aren't a cure though. They merely inject a shot of adrenaline into you which is hopefully enough to buy you enough time until you get to the nearest hospital before slipping into unconsciousness.
Bit hard and potentially a long way away from that happening 30,000ft up and hundreds of miles from help.

Going a bit far to say someone should be prosecuted for causing harm by nut exposure though - as it stands it's easy to miss one announcement in many, while you're settling in.

I've heard/read of people refusing to comply even when asked/reminded directly by airline staff/other passengers.

www.mamamia.com.au/nut-allergy-on-flight/

I reported all the multiple posts on the other thread - I hoped that MNHQ could delete them so the thread would open up again - but it looks like even though they have been deleted, the thread count has stayed at 1000.

I thought it was a deliberate and cynical effort on that one poster's part, to close out the thread, and that really infuriated me.

Maybe the solution is to wear a florescent tshirt saying I HAVE A NUT ALLERGY: pls dont eat them near me! when you are on a flight :)

@Hic sorry you went through such a horrid experience, it ain't much fun is it, although I was never on a plane when I had mine but ti was still very frighetning

On that thread when someone wrote "I enjoy a small bag of nuts with my G&T when flying" I was like oh.my.fucking.god

Some people!!!

I can't believe people would debate this but I guess there are some selfish fuckers in this world. What on earth is there to lose by not having nuts on flights? Surely it's a no brainer.

Urglewurgle, that link.
"The police told us that the man sitting in front of him told him not to open the nuts, but he just said he’d open them if he wanted to"

a FOUR year old girl. What the hell is wrong with some people.

There just aren't accurate statistics. The study quoted over and over in the last thread said in its own limitations that it was based on the amount of times the crew called the ground medical centre and there is no requirement for them to do so. So reactions like the one above on Singapore airlines probably wouldn't have been recorded as the passenger dealt with it herself. The recommendations were that it is made a requirement for all medical episodes on a plane to be recorded in this way but currently it is not.

The data was also fairly old. There has and continues to be an increase in food allergy prevalence across the world so we can expect to see more instances.

Yanbu, people can go a few hours without eating a bag of nuts ffs

But you'll get people saying it's the only food they can eat, they pour them straight into their mouths so theres no dust, why should they not enjoy a nut just so someone else can not die, what if they store them in their cheeks before the flight is that ok, the people with the allergy should not go out etc etc dare I say if they can't go a flight without a boring bag of rancid breath inducing nuts they the ones with the problem so should be staying in so they can stuff themselves like hamsters

SDT

I reported as well

Shitty behavior, they should be ashamed of themselves

They wont be of course