AIBu to eat a peanut butter sandwich at work?

[TwistMyMelons]

Every time I take one I wonder if I’m being unreasonable to do this. I work in an open plan office. But I don’t have anyone sitting very close to me. It’s a quiet office and not one where I can reasonably ask people if they have allergies.
Is it ok for me to be eating a peanut butter sandwich in work or is it inconsiderate?? Please help 😂

I'd hope if someone would need a nut free workplace, they'd advise HR who could send a generic "we are nut free" email around

I worry about this ever since I sat next to someone in a lecture, pulled out a breakfast bar with nuts and she let me know she has a nut allergy (never opened it and promptly put it away but she visibly pulled away from me for the rest of the lecture!). Anyway, I was worried at my office so asked HR if we had any declared nut allergies as were only a small team. Might be worth asking, though as pp said they probably would have informed you if it was a nut free place.

Asking Hr about but allergies is a great idea! I might do this. Thank you

We got a notification at work advising us there was now someone in the building with a nut allergy. I'm sure if there was someone in your office you'd have been notified

I would have thought most work places ban peanuts

I've never come across any (adult only) work place with rules around eating nuts.

Hr can confirm it for you if you're worried but I think if you had a colleague who was allergic enough for anyone eating nuts in the building to be an issue you'd already know, they'd have either told everyone themselves or asked HR to send an email round.

Really? I've worked in a variety of private and public sector workplaces on more than one country and none of them had a ban.

People can have similarly life threatening allergic reactions to other foods too, so where do you draw the line at banning foods? The anaphylaxis campaign doesn't support schools banning high allergen foods like peanuts, so I would presume the same thing would apply to workplaces.

Check with HR? At my work I had to complete a health questionnaire and state whether I had allergies.

I guess it depends on the likelihood of causing an anaphylactic reaction. Peanuts and tree nuts, more than other food substances, are associated with anaphylaxis as far as I know though of course theoretically there are people with severe but very uncommon allergies.

We had an email from HR recently to say in which areas exactly we shouldn't consume anything with peanuts. Definitely ask your HR department.

I worked somewhere where a colleague had an airborne allergy and he had a separate kitchen, didn’t go to the common room, and we weren’t allowed to eat anything with that ingredient in the office space where he worked. It’s HRs responsibility to let you know. If you haven’t heard, eat all the PB (&J?!) sandwiches you want!

My five year old carries epipens due to a peanut allergy - you're fine. Most people can be in the same room as peanuts just fine. If someone near her was eating a peanut butter sandwich I'd just ask them to wash their hands and wipe down the table once done - as much for reassurance as for actual risk in our case although some people do have to be careful about contact reactions.

People can be allergic to anything, no need to go banning allergens except in the case of an individual with an unusually severe allergy which you would have been advised about.

As far as I know it’s quite rare for someone to be so allergic that another person eating nuts in the same building is a risk. Food allergies that are so severe that you can react to airborn particles of the food do exist but someone living with that level of risk would presumably inform HR before starting the job and would also have to do things like avoid public transport and other crowded enclosed public spaces. Peanuts are quite a common allergy but most people affected actually have to eat the nuts to have a reaction. If someone ever asked me not to eat something with nuts because they might have an allergic reaction I would do it or remove myself from their space to do it (like maybe eat my nut bar on the way home from coffee in the park with my allergic friend for example). But everyone stopping eating nuts all over the place doesn’t help most allergy sufferers. I would be interested to know if there is evidence it could even be harmful for everywhere an allergy sufferer goes to be free of all traces of their allegen. I’m thinking that exposure on a miniscule level might help keep the allegic response in check - sometimes doctors try to treat allergies by exposing the patient to teeny tiny, gradually increasing levels of the allegen in a medical setting where any reaction can be treated immediately.

Unless you've been told that someone you work with has such a serious peanut allergy that they can't be exposed to other people eating it (which is not the case for most allergy sufferers, since most just can't eat nuts themselves), no need to worry. People might be severely allergic to different things - are you going to not eat lunch at all, because someone might have some serious allergy to something you don't know about?

I would imagine that's nonsense.

I would have thought that if the OP had a colleague who had a life threatening peanut allergy, people would know about it and the building would be nut free.

Because it's not just peanut butter that would have to be banned, but Snickers bars, bags/pots of nuts, satay chicken, quite a few African and Asian dishes, etc.

My dd has an airborne peanut allergy. So if someone is eating something that contains peanuts, she can have anaphylaxis (and has done several times).

But I’d say you definitely would’ve been told. It would be down to that individual to make sure that the message was loud and clear.

check with HR for sure but I’d say that if you haven’t heard then it’s fine.

Also, well done you for caring. It’s good to hear. Refreshing. We’ve been on flights when a nut allergy announcement has been made, then heard fellow passengers moan that they’ve bought nuts and now can’t eat them! Even some have said ‘I’ve bought them, so going to enjoy them!’
It was one of those flights that my dd has anaphylaxis on!

Everyone would've been told to avoid but products if someone had an airborne allergy

Lots of workplaces ban nuts for obvious reasons. Why can't you keep the peanut butter for at home?

You're clearly a very kind and thoughtful person OP!

My DS has multiple life threatening food allergies and needs an epi pen for milk, egg, hazelnut, cashews, prawns (and several other things).

He eats peanut butter all the time in and out of our home.

As others have said, unless a certain food has been banned, crack on! With any food though (especially a "top 8 allergen" like peanuts), always best to keep the table clean and wipe it down if you do spill some, just in case.

From the anaphylaxis UK website:

"Should nuts be banned in the workplace? We don't typically recommend complete bans of any food allergens because they can be very difficult to enforce, may lead to a false sense of security and cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment."

So you can stop thinking that now 😉

All of our offices are tree nut and legume nut free

I think it’s fine. If someone has a severe allergy it’s their responsibility to tell others / HR

I think you draw the line when it's a life and death risk.

This, this and this. Let’s listen to the experts. Unless you know someone has a severe allergy. If you’re asked not to and still do then you’re an idiot, otherwise crack on.

I have had a serious nut allergy all my life. I've rarely had an HR dept and even though I do now, it's not occurred to me to ask them to deal with it as we're a huge organisation.

It would be a major issue for me and potentially an issue if you ate peanuts elsewhere and then came and sat next to me. But I let everyone know in my immediate area, put posters on the kitchen door and if anything is catered, I flag it up every single time.

I'd say either choose another sandwich filling or drop an email around to check. You are clearly thinking about others, so this would be the safest option.

Just this last week, I had to ask a woman at an event (which should not have involved anyone needing snacks frankly) to put her bowl of nuts away and even after that I was a bit concerned that her kids had been eating them and touching surfaces I'd come into contact with. You can't plan for every eventuality and you just have to flag it when it happens.