Eating nuts on train?

[Watdidusay]

I need a sense check. I was eating a biscuit on a national rail train yesterday. It had a peanut butter filling.
I was standing in the gangway as the train had almost no seats.
At one stop, a woman and 2 young children were getting off. As they were waiting for the train to stop the woman said to me you can't eat peanuts on the train as it's a confined space. I didn't immediately understand and didn't really respond properly. She then got off.

I feel humiliated and stupid. I knew sometimes on planes this wasn't allowed if someone was allergic but didn't know this was the case on trains.

AIBU for not understanding?

Exactly, like diabetes.

People have different medical needs, and those needs can sometimes conflict. That’s why the person with the allergy needs to take reasonable precautions and personal responsibility, as it is not reasonable to expect one person’s needs to automatically take priority over everyone else’s.

I haven’t been on any kind of public transit in years because people wear perfume and my allergy is too severe. The prevailing sentiment seems
to be that if we have an allergy it is our problem to solve.

so by current standards you are perfectly entitled to eat nuts.

I have this kind of allergy. It is a disability purely because people insist on wearing scented products. There are plenty of fragrance free hygiene products available that are healthier for everyone. Many people with severe fragrance allergies end up unemployed and on permanent disability. I am one of the lucky people that has secured employment that allows me to wfh.

when my daughter comes home from school she has to change clothes and put her items away because just carrying in what she has picked up from being around other teenagers can trigger a reaction for me. Not likely an anaphylactic reaction, but an asthma attack or hives. Going into her school is a huge problem.

How on earth would she know your biscuit had a peanut filling? You’ve done nothing wrong

I have been on 6 Ryanair flights this year and on every single one they sold peanuts, almonds and other foods with allergens in. So those saying you can’t eat nuts on a plane, you are wrong.

yes hypnosis is the other modality that can help. Its really understandable and not uncommon when you live with the level of severe allergy that requires an epipen but i think having some support in order to be able to manage those situations when you can't control what others are doing can be really helpful,especially for children and teenagers www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/understanding-hypnosis/202201/treating-allergic-reactions-with-hypnosis

If you notify Ryanair about nut allergies they stop selling nut products on board during that flight and make a public announcement asking other passengers not to eat peanuts or nuts.

Not every airline does that though; it varies as they have different policies.

Well I didn't know if she did have a point or if she was unreasonable. Hence coming here!

I don't really know tbh. Maybe smelled it or recognised the packaging, but she was right

I’m not allergic to peanuts, but am to tree nuts. Someone was eating peanuts next to me on the bus yesterday and I started to get the itch. It was so weird.
But still. I know there are risks out in public and don’t expect anyone to modify their behaviour.

Well its not illegal so you didn't do anything wrong, op.

But i think its time it should be made illegal

Nuts kill people. They shouldn't be able to be consumed in public enclosed places.

Edit, I am allergic and my body responds to peanuts and nuts being consumed near me

I wouldn't say anything now though, but would support a law being brought in to ban it.

If I condoned using 'rapists' as an insult and flew with Ryanair, I'd be tempted to lie about such an allergy just to reduce their income.

I don't think the OP was unreasonable, of course would have been better if the train had sufficient carriages such that she did not need to stand and then I doubt it would have been an issue.

Yes, my daughter has thrown up at work when someone was eating a snickers and she was about five metres away. I suppose it’s like your body warning you.

This is riddiculous and actually nut bans are not even recomended by anaphalxysis society. Education and awareness of allergies is best practice.

I work in a school and we dont ban nits, every member of staff from office and caretaker through all teaching and support staff is allergy and anaphalaxysis trained.

I have bad allergies myself mainly to airbourne particles making it incredibly hard, there is a risk assessnent and colleagues know not to use sprays etc near me.

People can be allergic to anything and yoy can develop an allergy at any point in your life. I know children allergic to apples, celery, dairy for example and you cant ban all alergens. Education and awareness.

Op you did nothing wrong. It is good if you can wash your hands after eating and I always have wipes with me so when we eat on a train (send child needs ALL the snacks to cope on a journey) we wipe the table, put rubbish in bins etc. But thats basically just good manners.

You dont ban nuts at your school?

They're such a common allergen that can cause death - it makes sense to ban them imo, and take away something that can cause kids to die.

Yes there are lots of allergies and yes someone can die being hit by a car, but this argument is different. Nuts dont need to be in a public space.

Ban them imo, but as I said, the op hasn't done anything wrong, this is a broader issue

Of course children have died at school because of allergies.

The difference is of course that in a school, you can call an ambulance. You can’t do that on a train. You are trapped and on some trains it’s hard to move away.

I am a teacher and my dd is anaphylactic to peanuts. No school has had a nut ban, rightly so, but at no primary school I have ever worked at does a child with anaphylaxis to peanuts have the opportunity to sit next to a child eating peanut butter. Schools go out of their way to make sure that doesn’t happen.

And if that did happen you wouldn’t crush them in with other people so they couldn’t get away from the food that can actually kill them or be unable to call an ambulance because the school is moving at fifty miles an hour in a place where there are no roads.

I'm more alarmed that you ate on a filthy train holding on to the rails which hundreds of hands have touched - yuk.

Take 3 packets next time. Ridiculous woman (not you).

I usually travel first class on long distance trains, and they often give out nuts, and the last time I had a salad with nuts in.
i am however impressed at you managing to eat anything at all while standing on a moving train. I tend not to unless I have a seat as a) my balance is shit so I will fall over if not holding on with at least one hand and b) don’t want to be knocking into or dropping crumbs onto other people.

You were not in the wrong.

There seems to be quite a few people out there that think the world revolves around them. Yeah I get there are a few with airborne allergies and that must be pretty scary but if that was my child/me I’d be making sure to travel in my own vehicle. I mean what do these people do at the supermarket? There is often burst packets which means there will be nuts airborne in the store.

There is one at my child’s school a parent who thinks the world should chance for her son. My son is older and at academy and there has never been a mention of nuts not being allowed, her son joined this year and suddenly there is emails of no nuts. Luckily as he’s older my son just buys his nuts out of school and eats them before entering the grounds (he loves nuts and they are a good protein source for him) but at some point this kid is going to have to stand on his own 2 feet and enter the real world where mummy can’t tell people what they can and can’t eat.

Enjoy your nut bar on the train any time you like!

You can’t ban nuts!! They’re a healthy protein source for most people.

lots of people are allergic to many things. I think even milk and dairy are more risky.

it also not good to ban things and reduce the exposure - we’ll end up with even more kids with allergies.

It must be awful and scary but there are other ways to manage it.

And you of course did nothing wrong OP! Some people are just a bit ridiculous and think the world revolves around them and their rules and ideals.

I love nuts. But I don’t eat them on public transport. Just incase it might harm someone.

I think the poster means ban them in public confined spaces, as that is what she actually wrote.

You may have over reacted.

Just because you think that milk and dairy ‘may be more risky’ that doesn’t mean you are right. And you aren’t.

Nobody knows why the number of allergies have risen. Despite many, many studies. Nobody. Not you, not the scientists and doctors who are trying to find out so you are also wrong to say that banning ’things’ will ‘end up with more kids with allergies’ because you don’t know that.

Thanks for your wise words.

but I stick by what I said. It’s a discussion forum and I don’t believe banning nuts in any way is sensible. there are so many types and so many products with nuts in, you just couldn’t police it.

There is quite a lot of information out there to suggest reduced exposure and the changes to our lifestyles are likely impacts to the increase in allergies.

I think more education and people trained to support people with allergies is a good way to help.