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?

I know it is and I often say the same thing, that it’s a discussion forum.

But trying to make it look like another is saying something she wasn’t isn’t discussion.

I do not eat nuts when out and about but do at home. But I had a student who was so allergic years ago to peanuts that, airborne or contact even if the nut was no longer there could mean his epi pen was needed.

I have a couple of allergies but they are if I actually eat or have contact with the item so easily avoidable.

YANBU. No rules against it. We fly a lot and my oh always takes a couple of snickers fir a sugar hit, but switched to mars as sometimes airlines would make an announcement about peanuts

It’s eating nuts with your hands then touching surroundings that is risky, far more so than airborne contamination. I think if you’re eating nuts on a train, and you have nut residue on your hands it would be nice if people could be mindful of touching rails etc but I don’t think people should be banned from eating them.

It’s different on a plane because as previously pointed out, because if someone has a reaction there’s no way out. They’re dead. And you’d be amazed at how many people care more about forgoing a snack for a couple of hours than protecting the life of an allergic passenger.

How entitled.

Planes are an “enclosed space” because you literally can’t get off or escape! And could be hours from a hospital/medical help.

Trains, not so much.

And what if someone is feeling unwell, low blood sugar for example, and needs to eat? Oh no, just save your little snack and pass out cos you don’t want to see them eating. Nope.

Think we’ve found the woman on the train!

For info:

"Flying with nut and other food allergies: unravelling fact from fiction"

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12013556/

You can do but I don’t eat anything containing nuts in public. An anaphylactic reaction is very quick, and terrifying for the person having one, and potentially fatal, and it can be so easily avoided by such a simple action of just choosing something else to eat.

Maybe recognised the brand if OP was holding it in its wrapper?
Smelt it as she passed by?

It makes sense not to eat anything peanut related on public transport. Some people are so allergic. Surely it's not a hardship to wait and eat the peanut product at home.

Whilst I understand that nuts are a very serious allergy, as a mum to someone that has equally serious anaphylaxis, but to egg and dairy which is triggered by airborne allergens etc! It really pisses me off, getting on nut free flights etc as though its the only allergy out there. We have to deal with ours, but ever been on a milk and egg free flight, school etc? Nope! It minimises all other allergies, and unfortunately we have to be responsible for our own condition and take all the precautions.

I think in general you don't get to make up your own rules and then demand that other people follow them. If you're that concerned about nuts on trains then send a message to the companies to discuss the policy, don't pester randoms who are just minding their own business.

There is no prohibition on eating nuts on trains. Personally I'm very careful in confined spaces though and wouldn't pack nuts for a journey. That's my choice, regardless of what they sell on the train. The risk is so immense - and exacerbated by the speed of a person's reaction - that I don't want to take any chances.

Do you do that for any life threatening allergen tho? You could kill my son by eating an egg butty, but he has to take antihistamine oral, up his nose and have an inhaler and epi pen on him.

Its not just nuts!

One of the problems is possibly people are thinking industries should set policies that mean zero risk of ...(insert applicable problem).

It doesn't generally work like that because achieving zero risk might mean they can't operate.

In the real world it's usually a case of getting the risk below in, say 1 in 10^9, or "As Low As is Reasonably Acheivable" (ALARA).

That's why the stats such as those mentioned in the paper I linked to upthread, whilst maybe boring for some, are relevant.

The more realistic risk is something like getting peanut butter or nut residue on your fingers, touching the train’s door-open button, and then someone with an allergy touching that same button and transferring the residue to their mouth or eyes.

That’s a potential contact-contamination issue, rather than nuts somehow sending deadly particles flying through the air.

Studies have found that severe reactions from simply being near peanuts or smelling peanut butter are very unlikely (2003 clinical study; 2021 airborne exposure study).
The smell itself isn’t the allergen, that's other compounds you are smelling - it’s the peanut proteins that trigger the allergy. You can smell peanuts without inhaling those proteins in a dose capable of causing a reaction.

Allergies are serious, obviously, but there’s a difference between a genuine risk from allergen residue transfer/contamination vs nuts sponatenously shooting dust particles through the air....

But as someone said, dairy allergies exist. How many parents do you know who thoroughly decontaminate their hands (truly) after wiping yogurt from their baby's face and then touching stuff?

What a ridiculous response! So anyone eating nuts is selfish and putting your child in harms way? You do realise that nuts are not the only allergen and that you can't ban all potential food from public spaces.

The irony of you calling OP selfish, but then only looking from your own perspective! So switch that PB and J sandwich for cheese, you'll be fine.....not my family tho!

I have a lovely friend whose daughter is very allergic - and for this reason I choose not to eat nuts on planes, trains, buses. I would not eat any food on a short bus or train ride either. And never hot food on public transport. I want to vomit when kids get on eating fried chicken.

Nuts/peanuts are responsible for far more fatal anaphylactic reactions in the UK than eggs are…at a population level they're far more risky. That’s why they’re feared.

Dairy is the single greatest cause of food related fatalities in children and unfortunately the message hasn’t seemed to get out about that. (When figures for nuts and peanuts are combined they give higher figures, but dairy is the single highest.) Luckily eggs don’t seem to result in as many fatalities, though that is not to say they can’t (they can!!) and all allergies must be taken very seriously.
But there is a reason nuts/peanuts are feared and there needs to be more education around dairy.

I tend not to eat nuts outside of my home/pub, just in case as I once seen someone have a horrible reaction and it's stayed with me.

In the BMJ study that you are quoting from, the researchers also suggested that the greater awareness of nut allergies, may partly explain why the proportion of deaths attributed to nuts has fallen, while deaths associated with milk have risen.

If public awareness is disproportionately focused on one category of allergens, nuts! It distorts the danger posed by other foods. And this thread is a fine example of that!

Yes, I certainly think the researchers would advocate for greater awareness around allergies in general, especially dairy allergy in children.

However we’d probably be seeing more deaths from nut-related anaphylaxis if the public were less aware of nut allergy…that’s also implicit in what they said.

Making the public more aware of other allergens, which definitely should happen, doesn’t mean we should downplay the risk of nuts.

I think we are in agreement, and I'm not suggesting less nut allergy awareness, but greater allergy awareness of all allergens.

However, in the context of this thread, all the PPs outraged at the OP for eating peanuts probably don't bat an eyelid at anyone drinking a latte, eating a sandwich or bags of crisps on a train, because they don't consider the dangers. And as for the woman who called her out, does she challenge everyone? I doubt it.

As a mum of a child with a severe allergy to certain nuts, you can’t (and I wouldn’t) expect the public to not eat them just for his own sake. My child is aware and understands all the precautions he must take when out and about including taking his epi pens everywhere, wiping down seats, being aware of ingredients in food etc

We also live in a small community and have had nothing but kindness and understanding of his allergy, no one eats nuts around him, even if it’s ones he’s not allergic too. Though I wouldn’t ask people to do that.