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 😂

And here's another example of death from milk @Nevermay https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49675943.amp

I worked in an office where someone had a nut allergy so we were a nut free office. I think if someone had an allergy you’d likely have been told about it

I work in a school (independent boarding so different from state day) - every teacher is 1 day first aid trained with autoinjector training. Students are expected to carry their pen with them and there are occasional spot checks to make sure (every so often I will ask my tutee if he has his). They also need to show their pens on any trip off site.

On top of this there are auto-injectors in the dining hall, health centre and all boarding houses.

This should be standard but it costs money - training alone is expensive and needs to be updated every 3 years. School budgets are severely stretched and schools are being asked to do more and more with less.

Do you hot desk?

If it's your desk, and no one is going to have to potentially type at your keyboard and expose themselves to nut dust, that's fine. If you do hot desk, please clean your stuff at the end of the day with a wipe to make it safer for the person using your desk tomorrow. Most office cleaners just wipe down the desk (assuming you've gone home already) and that's it.

Even if you don't hot desk, please be considerate when washing your nutty hands - if you touch communal stuff after your sandwich but before you wash them, you're introducing risk.

TBH, if you only touched the bread and no peanut butter spilled out, I'd be OK with that. It would be more if it was overfilled, some came out and you smeared it back in with a finger, wiped your finger (but didn't wash it) then went touching things in the office.

The contamination of office property is unlikely to kill me (as has been said, most people with allergies only die from consumption) but it will make me ill, I won't understand why, and I'll drive myself loopy for days after trying to figure out what I did wrong.

As long as you're considerate with how you eat your sandwich, I don't care if you eat a peanut butter sandwich at your desk. You say you're far away from people anyway, so no one is going to smell it.

Again, the smell won't kill me... but because I know it smells like something that know will kill me, it isn't pleasant.

but roughly 90% of anaphylatic incidences ( and deaths) in the uk is down to nuts

sorry your son has so much to face, this is just about the stats though, not about individuals

Nope. You are very out of date. Here are your stats. https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n251#:~:text=Cow's%20milk%20is%20increasingly%20identified,of%20fatal%20anaphylaxis%20in%20children.

Milk causes 25% of anaphylaxis.

My DS and I both have anaphylaxis to various nuts. (And other things).Thank you for being so very considerate. I have never heard of anyone being so proactive about this. While I think asking HR whether anyone has a tree nut allergy is great, I also think that it is in only very rare cases that inhaled aerosolized peanut are going to be an issue. If you hotdesk at work, take some wipes and clean the desk, chair, monitor, keyboard and mouse and everything you are likely to have touched as well as your fingers, of course. Take the used wipes with you or dispose of in a knitted plastic bag and don’t leave bottles in or on your desk that you may have touched or sipped from and you’d be fine. (Btw, how many people eat Nutella and don’t think twice?)0

@Fraaahnces

I had never even considered Nutella!

My office (large organisation, known for being responsible and right-on, very strict on safety and inclusion) sells plenty of peanut-containing snacks in its vending machines, so no.

Nutella is hazelnuts which is less likely to be airborne / minimal contact and the allergic person has to eat it themselves.

It is also confusing as peanuts are not actually nuts (they are a type of pea - a legume) which makes dealing with allergies a bit trickier.

I would have thought most work places ban peanuts

Ive NEVER worked anywhere where nuts have been banned.

I’m allergic to nuts but I have to eat them to have a reaction, so you eating a sandwich in the office wouldn’t affect me, but I find that peanut butter smells revolting, I don’t know if I’m just super sensitive to it because I’m allergic to it or if everyone else can smell it too?

Peanuts are not the only allergy foods. If someone's allergy is that serious they'll let work know and a message will go around. What if you replaced your peanut butter sandwich with a sesame spread/ eggs and that caused an allergic reaction?

DH has a peanut allergy too and finds the same! I always found it interesting that his brain knows exactly how they smell even though he's had very little direct from exposure to them. He can smell them from far away in a big room so figured there must be some hypersensitivity at play.

peanut allergies are not airborne. There has never been any form of scientific evidence of anyone ever having a severe reaction from dust particles of peanuts, which would only be on surfaces etc, it’s however a common misconception and it is also a common fear of those who suffer from peanut allergies.

there is 100 percent guaranteed no risk to anyone of you eating a peanut butter sandwich in the office, unless uou wiped it all over someone’s desk and they then licked it.

Yes my son's allergy nurse says it's common to find the smell of things you are allergic to disgusting. I am severely allergic to egg and the smell of it makes me feel very sick

This is a great sign.
It shows good safe practice - hand washing, wiping surfaces etc (please don't let your children wander round play areas /soft play covered in ice cream/yoghurt etc)

It also clearly lists key dangerous allergens which some may find interesting - milk, egg, wheat , soy, nuts, peanuts, fish and shellfish

Thanks OP for caring about this issue. My ds has a peanut allergy and rather than banning people from eating nuts or nut containing products, it is far preferable that they clean their hands and the surface they ate on afterwards.

The only time I ask for a nut ban is on a flight. I bring a box of wet wipes soaked in washing up liquid and clean everything in his reach on the plane. My fear is not the airborne aspect of it but people eating nuts/nut products and then touching things on the plane eg toilet doors, arms rests etc.
No one wants an anaphylactic reaction 35,000 ft in the air, miles and possibly hours from medical attention. I hate flying with DS, I have terrible anxiety and cant relax until we are off the plane.

Agree with you, the extra layer of caution on a plane is because the stakes are so much higher. I get nervous on ferries and indeed long distance trains too for the same reason.

Worth noting that risk applies to all allergens though so we are really grateful to people who practice good hygiene.

And I agree it is lovely that op cares and has thought about this, that means a lot to people with allergies

@Diorama1 - you are never going to get an airline to enforce a nut ban. People can bring what they like on board. I say this as a fellow anaphylaxis sufferer and an ex- flight attendant.(If only I had a dollar for every time I had been asked by a passenger as they boarded - and a dollar extra for every one of those who had left their epipen in their checked baggage….)

Yeah, I know some twat who didn't believe that traces on surfaces was a big deal, so deliberately wiped some surfaces with nuts to make a point (I obviously didn't know).

I ended up in hospital.

If I'd been older at the time and more confident, I'd have made a police report as that was no accident.

I don't find the smell disgusting per se, but I can link the smell to the past experience of being sick and/or nearly dying, so it's not pleasant.

Smell is a really important sense when it comes to evoking memories.

You would think wrong, and you would think very oddly.

Mine actually offered to ban nuts, which I thought was quite sweet but also a complete overreaction. As long as people are considerate with handwashing etc, I don't see why my allergy should impact them.

And even if they did make work a nut-free zone, I'd still have to get to/from work. When it comes to living with allergies, the best approach is to learn how to manage to be around people who have contact with your allergens, not avoid them completely.

I can understand banning nuts at nursery (because the kids are too young to take care), and maybe even primary at a push. But once you're into a standard secondary school onwards, you have to learn to cope with the world around you.

1. why would SHE die because YOU eat nuts? Unless you licked her afterwards?

2. nobody with a serious life threatening allergy fails to mention it in a new workplace. Not unless they are suicidal and have the IQ of a peanut.