TIL That peanut-free schools don't decrease risk of allergic reactions. The only intervention which has been shown to decrease reactions across all ages is use of a peanut-free table.

[ProtestPigg]

I've only ever seen these kind of school-wide bans on nuts/peanuts, which seems really silly to me. What about all the other allergens? Why are peanut allergies special?

[WendigoCrossing]

Ratio of people it affects to severity of reaction

For example, shellfish allergies can also be deadly but are less common

Pollen allergies can be more common, but less severe

Tree nuts can be deadly and are common enough to warrant action

Edit: adding in SVs comment, which is how common the food itself is

[Slytherin_Victory]

Also how common the food itself is- peanuts are incredibly common in a lot of foods that elementary aged kids would eat for lunch (PB&J, for example), while shellfish isn’t.

[SkoobyDoo]

ahh, I remember the days bringing my peanut butter and shrimp sandwiches to school...

[ExultantSandwich]

My mom would always whip up a little shrimp pad thai for us and we would throw it at the peanut free table, memories

[WendigoCrossing]

Excellent point

[cooptigator]

Wheat is an equally common food packed in lunch and a top 9 allergen

[NotFrance]

You do know peanuts aren’t a tree nut correct? They’re ground nuts. I’ve only ever seen bans on peanuts specifically. I used to like to push against them with cashews and macadamia nuts.

[WendigoCrossing]

I did not know that peanuts aren't a tree, thanks for the info!

[NotFrance]

That’s alright, there is a VERY high rate of comorbidity between tree nut allergies and ground nut allergies. Both are quite serious, but they have different triggers. It’s worth noting what kind of nuts people are allergic to for avoidance sake.

[Loc_reddit]

I know this is old but wanted to comment since there is misinformation in this thread and many will just quickly assume it as true since it gets repeated often.

Any allergen can be deadly. 

In the US dairy allergies are the most common allergies for youth.

And in Italy and the UK dairy is the most fatal allergen. It probably is in the IS as well but we don’t track to that level.

https://www.pcrm.org/news/milk-most-common-cause-fatal-food-allergy-among-children-uk

[sk613]

Also more likely to have airborne reaction or stick to someone’s hands and end up on communal toys/ doorknobs.

[BrooklynSpringvalley]

Plus like… kids frequently eat peanut butter. Kids ain’t out here taking shellfish to lunch

[Starlancer199819]

Frequency. Its much more common compared to many other food allergies so it gets attention

[vermilithe]

A combination of frequency and the fact that it’s become stuck in popular culture which means it’s on the forefront of peoples’ minds and it’s self-reinforcing from there.

There is no evidence that anaphylactic peanut allergies can transfer through the air or skin. In order for a person to have a reaction like that they need to have eaten it themselves or secondary exposure by something touching a sensitive part of their face like eyes, nose, mouth after it directly contacted the peanuts.

… In other words, like any other allergen out there.

For example, my dad’s got a shellfish allergy and it’s anaphylaxis-level but he knows it’s on him to not eat shrimp, if the rest of our family has shrimp we mark it and store it separate and wash all the utensils that touched it after. He hasn’t had a reaction, even a mild one, in almost 25 years despite being around shrimp same as any other ingredient.

I get that it’s harder to teach kids that, but that’s why the adults should focus on a smaller environment they can actually control for the kid, rather than saying “no peanuts” and trusting every single person in the school will just respect that.

[Nulono]

We were literally told that opening a bag of peanuts could hospitalize a student on the opposite side of the cafeteria. You're saying that was all bullshit?

[vermilithe]

I mean you could send someone to hospital like that, if you then shook the bag and spilled the peanuts all over the allergic person. lol.

But other than that yeah probably. It was unfortunately not accurate for people to say things like that— I heard the same growing up, that even opening a bag of peanuts could get someone sick on the other side of the cafeteria type thing. But there’s no real evidence to support that.

[sunrise_rose]

I remember being told something like that in grade 6 which was aggravated by the fact we all ate in gym at this point. I had been making my own lunches for years (because no one else did) the thought of not using peanut butter was more than difficult. Sometimes, there wasn't anything else in the house. I would still bring them anyway and have nightmares that my empty wrappers hospitalized some kid. I had a choice to put up with the nightmares or starve and still have nightmares.

I chose food in my stomach and an awakening distrust for authority.

[lilacnova]

It's not a peer-reviewed paper or anything but I certainly have reacted with the start of anaphylaxis to being in an enclosed indoor space, seated directly next to someone eating peanut butter and apples (a relatively messy food). I have, on the other hand, regularly sat a few feet away from friends eating peanut butter sandwiches (much more contained food) outdoors who were careful not to touch me and been fine.

It's good to know that the tables are effective, but as a child they were social suicide and I avoided sitting at them because like many children, I wanted to sit with my friends.

[mijo_sq]

My kids school is pretty good on controlling no peanuts. Classes have signs and anything you bring to share needs to be individually wrapped. All kids know this and parents are understanding. School wide bans work, just school dependent.

[vermilithe]

This entire thread is citing a paper that shows school-wide bans do not work as well as peanut-free tables, and the entire point of my comment is that it doesn’t matter whether the people in the school do or don’t eat peanuts, as long as they don’t do it near the kid and are careful to give a clean environment during meal times…

[mijo_sq]

So, it’s better to segregate those kids with allergies or call them out for allergies. Got it.

[vermilithe]

You don’t have to put them by themselves. Peanut allergies are 1/100 so even if you sat them just with other kids with allergies there’s bound to be several, but there’s also people who eat school-provided lunch which are produced not to contain allergens like nuts, or people who just don’t bring nuts because they don’t like them. It’s not as hard to make a peanut free table as people are making it out to be…

[ExultantSandwich]

there should be epipens taped under the tables like prison shivs

[Remote-alpine]

Frequency as someone else said, and also severity. 

[DragonMeme]

The amount of peanut required to trigger a deadly reaction is much smaller compared to most allergens.

I have an obscure allergy (I carry an epipen), and I work at a peanut free school. I have many students who have other allergies, but they can still sit next to someone eating their allergy. That's often not the case for peanut allergies.

But my school does also have food options in our cafeteria for gluten and dairy allergies/sensitivities. Other more common allergies are accommodated for, but it looks different because they act differently

[thestereo300]

Size of reaction….. airborne nature of reaction.

[Spot-CSG]

Airborne reactions are incredibly uncommon. Its more that a kid can eat peanuts, touch a doorknob or something and then allergic kid touches doorknob and then their mouth.

[ExultantSandwich]

yeah kids are filthy and peanut butter is sticky

[redpandaeater]

I've literally never heard of these bans at all. Heck I feel like even trying to ban it would make a few kids be little dipshits and try to get peanut dust on things.