Dangers

[Oldfart]

Dangers

Just found this on CNN.

SAGUENAY, Quebec (AP) -- A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a peanut butter snack, hospital officials said Monday.

Christina Desforges died in a Quebec hospital Wednesday after doctors were unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss the previous weekend.

How bad must the boyfriend feel?

[imaginewithme]

how terrible!

[dicksbro]

You know for a long time I used to think the "allergy to peanuts" was either very rare or maybe a joke ... but it's definitely not! I've heard so many stories of terrible reactions to peanuts.

IWM, you're right, TERRIBLE.

[Oldfart]

When did we humans turn so frail?

[Steph]

It is strange. I was a kid of the 70s & 80s & nobody was allergic to peanuts then. Since you plucked a Canuck story from CNN, thought I'd give an update to how far we have to go now:

Schools in Ontario are now required to prepare safety plans for students with fatal allergies as part of Sabrina's Law, named after a Pembroke teen who died of severe allergic shock in her high school.

http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/story/to-sabrinas-law060103.html

[gekkogecko]

Used to have a girlfriend who was so allergic to cheese that I couldn't kiss her after eating it...fortunately, this was a known thing, and I never actually tried it to see if it was real. Neither of us are quite that stupid.

Steph, it's possible that the reason nobody in your school was allergic to peanuts is that by the time that people were old enough to go to school, all the people with severe peanut allergies had been killed off by well-meaning moms making their lunches.

[BIBI]

Peanut allergies have been around forever. Most who have this allergy do not die from it. Many kids develop asthma that can be traced to peanut products, but since it has been discovered that it can kill some of the ones affected there have been bans placed on peanut products in schools if there is a child attending with such an allergy. Most kids outgrow it too just like with other allergies....and some get worse as with many conditions.

[IAKaraokeGirl]

I could write and write and write on this subject, as a mother of a child who had a peanut allergy but, thankfully beyond measure, outgrew it. Regardless, suffice it to say it is an allergy that should be taken VERY seriously, has reactions that can crop up when you least expect them (i.e., even peanut dust in the air), and is growing.

[wyndhy]

a pre-school i applied at some years ago had a standing policy of no peanutbutter at the school at any time.

[BIBI]

It is a very serious allergy and I agree with the banning of peanut products but not too many people realize that they have to read labels to make sure no product gets near a person with this allergy.

It is good to see that foodstuffs are being labeled.

[wyndhy]

i pointed ou the same thing to the director, bibi...why just no peanut butter? what about snickers, peanut oil, things made on things that may have had peanuts on them ... etc, etc, etc

maybe that's why she never called me back. :p:D

[Scarecrow]

It is now a law in the USA that the top 8 foods with allergic reactions must be clearly labeled on the container. They are Peanuts, Tree Nuts, eggs, Shellfish, sea food, wheat, soy and milk. My S/O has verying allergys to most of these foods with eggs being the worst. She carries an Eppy injector with her at all times.

[Loulabelle]

Oldfart, I can in fact answer your question:

The reason so many more people are suffering from allergies is because we are no longer at risk from so many diseases.

Our immune systems have become under employed meaning that they sometimes misinterpret the proteins found in certain foods as pathogens. Our immune systems attack the proteins as they are absorbed into our bodies, creating swelling, irritation and the production of mucus etc. which we know as an allergic reaction.

The more we expose our bodies to these proteins, the quicker our immune systems kick in each time, meaning that we have a more extreme reaction each time our body encounters any food containing this protein.



I learned that from one of The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures this year. :D

[Oldfart]

Just a postscript to the story and the hysteria generated here in the schools,

(bugger it, lost the CNN link).

You'll find it interesting.http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/06/peanut.kiss.ap/index.html

[Lilith]

I heard about the change of cause of death this morning. It's a tragedy either way.

[Oldfart]

My thought was that the panic merchants are so quick to demonise.

How she died doesn't lesson the tragedy, but may let one poor boy off the hook for killing his girlfriend with a kiss.

[BIBI]

Yes it is still a terrible tragedy but at least that poor young man won't be haunted the rest of his life over thinking it was his fault.