<p>Those sound like legitimate concerns to me. Instead of coercing the taxi drivers to behave in a way that outsiders deem fair, but which put drivers at risk and cost them money, you could allow allow different taxi rates for different parts of a city. This would do more to increase the number of taxis in areas considered underserved.</p>
<p>This I agree with. Having peanut butter in a dorm room or using a dorm floor kitchen to slap together a PB&J is a fairly common activity. Now perhaps Ramen, since it’s cheaper, has replaced PB&J but none-the-less I don’t see the point of banning peanut butter from a campus dining facility in the absence of more than one facility where one could be designated peanut free. College dining rooms tend to be rather cavernous places so I simply can’t compare that to the confines of an airplane and an airplanes recirculated air… Sorry, but I can die of a bee sting and carry an epi pen since my reaction is anaphylactic - like go to the hospital quickly allergic…I think peanut suffers folks can probably navigate their way through life as I navigate mine through nature. I absolutely think the world has gone mad with all this protectionist hysteria for a tiny, tiny portion of the population - maybe smaller than my bee sting allergic portion, and of that tiny, tiny portion the number that are SO hypersensitive that an epipen does no good - if there were a case where an epipen did not good. I’m of the school, and I stole this quote: “It’s an unfortunate situation if a family with an inaccurate perception of the allergy leads a child to believe that a Snickers bar from 50 feet away is a lethal weapon.”</p>
<p>Coed bathrooms in college dorms have been around for decades (yes, disclosed on the housing preference forms so that students not comfortable with the idea could choose a single-gender floor or dorm).</p>
<p>If you mean in other contexts, the main form that “gender neutral bathrooms” seem to show up as in public areas is “family restrooms” to make it convenient for parents to assist opposite-gender children or both parents to change an infant’s diaper.</p>
<p>They are still illegal because they are systemically discriminatory on basis of race or other EEOC categories and location. More importantly, driving in less desirable areas or dealing with “inconveniencing customers” like seniors using walkers is considered one of the things one signs up for when obtaining their Taxi license from the TLC. </p>
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<p>That’s not always the case depending on the college. For instance, some of the dining CO-OPs at my LAC were actually quite small.</p>
<p>It’s this kind of statement that, while well-intended, comes across as really sanctimonious to me. Just because I don’t think a large accommodation should be made at every college for a minuscule part of the population that has other choices does not mean I wouldn’t (or don’t) make sacrifices for others. A small group of people here seem to be defining the terms of what it means to care, to be selfless, to be part of a community.</p>
<p>Nut dust in the air can cause severe reactions but only under specific circumstances where there are high concentrations of nut dust in a confined space - I would not use the word confined for any college dining hall - even if I exaggerated by using the word cavernous.</p>
<p>I would think it prudent to monitor “peanut” stuff among little kids who stick there hands in all kinds of places and drop crumbs everywhere and I would agree that it is prudent for nursery schools and lower elementary years to monitor and possibly restrict peanut products, but to do this at the college level is absurd. There are all kinds of things that a small population of people can be allergic and potentially result in anaphylaxis.</p>
<p>I’m also allergic to penicillin (for which I wore a medic alert bracelet when young). The reaction to penicillin is anaphylaxis for me and I did not outgrow it (had one physician “test” this when I was around 16 as many people outgrow their allergies).</p>
<p>Food is generally the most common cause of anaphylaxis. Common food triggers include nuts, shellfish (shrimp, lobster), dairy products, egg whites, and sesame seeds. Wasp or bee stings are also common causes of prophylaxis.</p>
<p>Medications are also a common cause of anaphylaxis.</p>
<p>The one rapidly effective treatment for anaphylaxis is an epipen – epinephrine by injection.I’m presuming a parent would NOT send a kid off to college who has an allergy that results in anaphylaxis without an epipen instead of relying on the college cafeteria to protect that one kid in thousands.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, “if it saves just one life” is an objectively ridiculous statement. You cannot do a cost-benefit analysis without understanding the COST, and sometimes, the cost to saving “just one life” is to allocate resources in a way that saves that one particular life - and ends other lives. It’s also absurd since there is no limit to the ways in which society can bedevil its members in deciding that it is crucial to save “just one life”, and those who ask what’s next - shellfish? milk? all nuts? - are pointing out that the pro-peanut-ban folks would like to ignore. It’s easy to pretend that it’s only this particular item that needs to be banned to save “just one life”, but there’s no logical reason to ban peanuts but to permit cashews, shellfish, wheat, or soy.</p>
<p>More people die in a week from bad diets than have died in the last decade from peanut-related allergies. Yes, “vegetarianism is a choice”, but it’s a choice that saves lives, since vegetarians live several years longer than their meat-eating counterparts, are at lower risks of certain types of cancers, and lower risk of heart attack. But keep telling me how the best way to save lives is to ban an important source of protein for vegetarians! </p>
<p>(Was that harsh? Probably. I would be more sympathetic to the pro-peanut-ban side if the arguments weren’t so flimsy.)</p>
<p>Perhaps a college could do something like designate a nut-free area of the dining hall and ask their peanut-eating students to wash their hands before exiting the dining hall. I think that most students wouldn’t mind a quick scrub after eating PB&J, if they knew that a peanut-allergic person could possibly come in contact with the things they have touched, and it’s a nice compromise between an outright ban and letting someone with a deadly allergy fend for himself.</p>
<p>If hand-washing were too cumbersome, would wet-naps do the trick? Could you not have peanuts per se, but allow non-dust peanut products (e.g. peanut or other nut butters)? Compromise is an important adult skill, and it goes both ways.</p>
<p>As far as I know, there is not evidence in the medical literature for anaphylaxis or death caused solely by touching peanut butter or inhaling peanut butter. I posted a link to such an article several pages back. Having a PB and J station in a dining hall should not be a major issue for peanut allergic students, especially if it is kept in a separate area of the dining hall. I don’t think most college students are going to get peanut butter on their hands and not make any attempt to wipe it off before leaving their table in a dining hall. The risk of peanut residue being on a surface exists everywhere: public transportation, door handles, common communion cups, water fountains, and on and on. Peanut allergic people manage to navigate public situations and most restaurants without allergic reactions and without dying. What about people who are anaphylactic to other substances? Should milk, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, and eggs also be banned?</p>
<p>Yes, I do have kids who are severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts and I do not think such a ban is necessary.</p>
<p>You both seem to have far more faith in the willingness and diligence of undergrads to observe basic hygienic practices such as washing hands/using wipes when warranted than what is common knowledge among undergrads. </p>
<p>You’d be surprised at how many undergrads continue to have same/worse basic hygiene habits compared with their K-8 counterparts. </p>
<p>It’d be funny if such misplaced faith isn’t at the expense of those who could end up having reactions which risk hospitalization episodes or even their very life in the context of a college dining hall/area. </p>
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<p>And here, you’re displaying a bit of ignorance. There have been several reported cases of PA/nut allergy sufferers having severe allergic reactions requiring epi-pens and/or hospitalization or even death because of peanut butter or other nut butters. </p>
<p>Not to mention one friend ended up effectively having to take an entire semester off from school because another student/parent idiotically figured “What harm could there be in eating PBJ around a PA sufferer?” If I was in range to throttle that student/parent…I’d probably would have risked a suspension to do so considering that friend nearly died from the exposure. </p>
<p>Idiots like that are some reasons why there are peanut/PB/nut-butter bans in many public school districts.</p>
You’re being overly judgmental. How is a person supposed to know that another person at the table is life-threatening allergic to peanut butter? You must also remember that some PA’s are able to be in the same room (or even car) as peanut butter. I was on a dance competition trip in a van and I pulled out some trail mix. One of the girls turned around, eyes fully enlarged and said, “I’m allergic to peanuts.” We immediately closed the can, but she stopped us saying for us to clean off our hands and to not touch anything while we were eating them. </p>
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Again, overly judgmental. </p>
<p>Allergies vary extremely. A stranger doesn’t know how you react to things. My friend is allergic to skittles (and similar candies) and she didn’t call me and my friends idiots for eating a pack around her.</p>
<p>In that case, that idiot student/parent knew about it because we were all briefed about it by our homeroom teacher/admins at the beginning of the year because the PA sufferer suffered from severe PA. </p>
<p>Even if ignorance is a defense under the law…neither of them could have claimed it in that instance in light of that prior disclosure.</p>
<p>Heard the parent and school district ended up quietly settling rather than risk being sued and possibly being held criminally liable.</p>
<p>q* My friend is allergic to skittles (and similar candies) *</p>
<p>Is your friend allergic to the sugar or the dye/ artifical flavoring in skittles?
Since food coloring is used in many things, does she have to read lots of labels/ carry an epipen?
How did she discover she was allergic?</p>
<p>cobrat, you do sound judgmental. People forget stuff. Perhaps the PA was discussed in September, and now it was April and even the PA sufferer had let her guard down. And they forget the details. After a while they might have come to believe that it’s only peanut dust, not the “inert” butter form, that is dangerous. There is a lot to keep track of, between Annie’s peanut allergy and Sean’s lactose intolerance and Alex’s fear of bees which may or may not be related to a previous allergic reaction. You are simply making the case for why PA sufferers–the ones prone to the most serious and life-threatening reactions–simply cannot trust the general population to keep the allergies of others top of mind at all times. This, in turn, supports the idea that families with PA children need to do everything they possibly can to ensure their safety. Which to me would mean NEVER TRUSTING ANYONE with my child’s life other than family members and extremely close friends.</p>
<p>When one is told ahead of time that someone has a severe enough PA allergy that exposure to any peanut product…PB included could potentially be life-threatening…and they ignore it because they figured “What harm could there be” in the words of that idiot parent in a special meeting in our homeroom class…that’s one case where being judgmental IMO is quite warranted.</p>
<p>Moreover, in many areas of life…especially in areas with potential criminal and civil legal liabilities like that…I don’t think too many judges would be willing to give a pass to someone because “they forgot stuff”. Especially when that very forgetfulness almost caused a student to lose his life.</p>
<p>Cobrat,
Could you provide links from medical literature of anaphylactic reactions from touching peanut butter or smelling it or being in the same room as peanut butter?</p>
<p>No, I don’t think we need to protect every individual from every potential thing especially a “thing” that all medical research has pointed out is less possible than being struck by lightening or winning a mega lotto. If you have a peanut allergy or any life threatening allergy, carry an epipen. Tell your friends. That doesn’t make me callus, afterall I’m deathly afraid of bees for a reason, it only makes me go outside in the summer with some common sense. I certainly don’t expect the world’s administrators to eradicate bees when I’m in their territory and would never expect colleges to remove flowers from the campuses simply because I’m “deathly allergic” and more deaths occur from bee stings than from peanut allergy.</p>