Nut allergy on plane

[HomeCookingWannabe]

I've been on a plane today. At the airport I bought Pret's choc almond cookie as a treat. We get on the plane and they say don't eat anything with nuts in as someone severely allergic.

So I didn't, because i'm not a dk and I want to keep someone alive.

But if said allergy person is worried about airborne transmission, surely the cookie sitting there for the 4 hour flight is worse than if i'd eaten it and it was in my tummy? It doesn't seem to make sense to me.

AIBU in thinking it's a load of nonsense?

This is interesting as a study. However, I live by the rule of thought that it only takes one incident with one person...

I have a colleague with an airborne nut allergy - at a work event the catering team had something with nuts and although she didn’t eat it she still ended up in hospital with Anaphylaxis.

This was in quite a big room, not a contained aircraft.

I think whoever wrote & published that article is an idiot to be spreading that kind of take on it and encouraging people to minimise the risk.

https://ki.se/en/research/popular-science-and-dialogue/spotlight-on/spotlight-on-food-allergy/airborne-exposure-to-peanuts-did-not-produce-severe-reactions#:~:text=%22The%20amount%20of%20protein%20in,participants%20in%20the%20study%20either.%E2%80%9D

Interesting article

This appears to have been an airborne reaction.

https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/07/british-airways-girl-with-allergy-nearly-died-as-man-refused-to-stop-snacking-16779250/

FWIW I have a DS with an anaphylactic peanut allergy. It means that we onlly travel on planes that have a nut policy and do not serve nuts with their meals or snacks. Most arilines have the policy available on their website. My worry is when there is code sharing though and you are put on a plane you do not expect. Last year we were supposed to be travelling long haul via Cathay which still serve nuts. My child's allergy consultant ordered blood tests to test for a certain indicator in the blood that would advise us if his allergy was 'more likely' to be airborne than not- but it's not a wholly reliable test. Luckily his test results came back that although he was anaphylactic (which we already knew of course having found out the hard way when he was a toddler) that it was not likely to be airborne.

We always ask to board first and do a deep clean of the aircraft with alcohol rubs. We do the same when we go to cafes or restaurants- wipe everything down first. Issue is that you are more likely to be able to reach medical help while at a cafe than 10 hours en route in the air.

I appreciate it if people are a little bit sensitive to the very real worries and concerns and fears people who have allergies have when they travel. A PP said they just eat the nuts. Well, not eating your snack is unlikely to cause you much more than a slight discomfort compared to what the alternative might be for someone else. And in many cases it's not as simple as saying 'don't travel then, you allergy-ridden wastrel'. Dcs only grandparents live in Australia and they are very old and frail. We would like to see them again before they pass. You can try and account for every single possibility out there, and that's the best anyone can do really.

@Whyherewego

This is actually the best explanation I've seen of the reason and now makes sense to me. If we eat the nut product and then touch the toilet door and transfer particles and the allergic person then touches it, they can get the particles from that.
Thank you genuinely for explaining ! I get why they say it now

The slight flaw with that argument is that in these days of often sub 45 minute turn rounds (that’s brakes on to brake off again….) on short haul flights cabin interiors probably only get a decent wipe and seats/carpets hoovered once every 24 hours during a lull at base.

By the time you hop on board a late light return from e.g the Med to the UK the aircraft may have done half a dozen sectors, maybe more, carrying dozens of nut and Toblerone eaters since the last time surfaces were last properly cleaned.

That’s why the advice often offered to those worried by this is to try and pre-board (if the airline facilitates it) and wipe down your furniture…and it’s also why the airlines cannot guarantee a nut free cabin environment.

Oh that's good to know. Ds is allergic to cashew and pistachios but we have been told to avoid all tree nuts. He has lots of mangoes in summer and seems to have been fine with it so far but it's something to keep an eye on..

We do this too.

All these posts finding random small studies that people then try to use as a reason to not follow requests to not eat something that could kill someone a few feet away: I struggle to understand the motivation behind these posts. Surely we can wipe down seating areas AND ask people near us not to eat nuts for a couple of hours.

What I am yet to see is newspaper stories about someone needing hospital treatment because they nearly died after not being allowed to eat a peanut on a plane. Where are all the stories about people starving to death on the jet2 from Manchester to Alicante because they had to save their snickers for when they landed? SURELY this must be a common occurrence given the resistance people have to just not eating that particular snack for a couple of hours. The number of people fiercely resistant to this must know people who have died because they couldn’t eat a pack of salted pistachios .

Don't trust that study. I know it affects me! Possibly isn't going to trigger anaphylaxis but would make me ill all the same.

I used to have to hide in my room at uni when my asshole flatmate decided she loved peanut butter after finding out about my allergy!

My mother did end up in hospital after a flight as she fainted due to not have suitable food for her diabetes. (Hit her head while fainting).

She wouldn't take nuts as she isn't an idiot... but if a diabetic person ate a snickers as that was all they had, would they be a bad person?

What an absolutely ridiculous comment. Your mum didn’t collapse because she wasn’t allowed a snickers. As a diabetic I don’t go anywhere without glucose tablets. Your mum collapsed because she was careless by not making sure she had something suitable with her, not because she wasn’t allowed to eat a nut on a plane. This was within her scope of influence.

Even as a diabetic, knowing I’m going on a flight and there’s the potential nuts might not be allowed, I probably wouldn’t choose a snickers.

This proves my point that people will go out of their way to fight against just not eating nuts.

what if I’m a vegan and most of my food has nuts in it?

what if I’m pregnant and I’ve got a craving?

whattabout … whattabout … This is going on my compilation of ridiculous stretches.

My daughter is allergic to all nuts and peanuts, but fortunately it's not an airborne allergy. I always wipe everything down when we board but never request the airplane to be nut free.

Airborne allergies are rare but still exist so if I hear that I am on a nut free flight I assume that it is for good reason and will comply.

Actually the flight was delayed and ran out of food... and ironically she couldn't eat the food on the plane die to an allergy. And I said she didn't eat nuts.

I was just pointing out that nut allergy sufferers aren't the only people with medical needs.

@TickingAlongNicely

My mother did end up in hospital after a flight as she fainted due to not have suitable food for her diabetes. (Hit her head while fainting).
She wouldn't take nuts as she isn't an idiot... but if a diabetic person ate a snickers as that was all they had, would they be a bad person?

Which one of several reasons why quite a few airlines will not make a blanket announcement totally banning nut consumption onboard…

The policy at many places is that a request is made that those sat adjacent to the allergy sufferer refrain from eating nuts (there’s sometimes a definition of what is regarded as adjacent in the crew manuals) and/or on larger aircraft the request might be confined to the occupants of one single zone/cabin.

Personally I think a complete ban on nut consumption onboard board a long haul aircraft with maybe 40 or 50 seat rows split across multiple cabins would be completely out of proportion.

When we fly with my ds we board first and give the seat etc a thorough clean, we also cover his seat with a fitted sheet.
It’s not relaxing flying with him, particularly as people often couldn't give a shit about following the announcements about not eating nuts 🙁

But why didn’t she have glucose tablets? That’s pretty basic.

The rest - out of her control. Not having something to tide her over though? Within her control.

I’ve also been hospitalised due to a diabetic emergency. Once. After that I was prepped to the hilt. Bet your mum is now too.

My DS has a nut allergy, not airborne but anaphylactic. When we fly we carry EpiPens, we only give him food we bring from home and we are sure he can have and we let the staff know at the gate he's got a nut allergy (specifically asking not to give him any snacks without checking with us).

This results 100% of the times in an announcement not to consume nuts on the plane (which we don't request) and him being handled the snacks anyway.
I think the policy is really to make that standard announcement if anyone has a nut allergy.

The easiest and safest answer is to probably ban eating of nuts on all flights, just like smoking is banned.

My daughter has a nut allergy. It's more about crumbs dropped and nut residue on your hands and you touching things etc. Young children touch everything and constantly put their hands in their mouths . We always wipe our daughters hands and seats when we sit down but the less risk the better.

My child has peanut and tree nut allergies and we only found this out because they reacted to airborne particles from my parents eating nuts across the room from them. So in our case airborne reactions are very much the case. Child has never eaten any nuts but is allergic to all the nuts we’ve ever eaten (previously) in their presence

It’s not exactly a hardship not to eat nuts for a small period of time. They won’t want to risk it so go with the full ban because you can’t get immediate access to medical care when 40,000ft in the air.

And how are you going to police such a ban?

My son has a serious peanut allergy. We've seen studies saying airborne reactions are rare, but we once had a scary incident on a plane—they served nuts after we boarded, and he had a reaction (thankfully not severe, but really distressing for him and us). Yes, it can happen in buses, shops, cinemas, etc., but on the ground, you've got quick access to help. You don't in the air, and epipens only buy you so much time.

Others made good points about announcements—I agree that they should happen before boarding, not after people might have already snacked on nuts. However, every airline we've flown (and we've flown a lot) waits till boarding to hear about allergies. The purser decides then if they'll make an announcement or skip the nut snacks. It's super stressful flying with an allergy, but passengers are usually supportive if the airline's on board with making an announcement.

And to those who say 'Why fly at all?'—sometimes you just have to. Should my 24-year-old son limit his career by telling employers he can't travel with them? It's really tough navigating all this.

I’m sorry but that is pathetic. Sometimes seats don’t sell until the day of or before so when does she expect an announcement? Do you not think they have enough to think about as well as policing people’s snacks at WH Smith? I think this sums up what is wrong with the world….me, me, me.

Well the smoking ban works.

Maybe if people realise it's a ban rather than an ask then they might take more seriously.

I gguess not serving foods or chocolate with nuts or cookies with nuts would also help minimise the chances of people eating them. I mean is it really a big deal to not eat nuts for a few hours?

Don’t try logic, people don’t want to hear it!