<p>If a student is so severely allergic that a peanut free section of the cafeteria is not an adequate accommodation, then I find it hard to understand how he could safely go anywhere on campus–someone could be eating a Snickers bar next to him anywhere, anytime. But assuming that’s the case, I think the reasonable way to handle a student’s severe peanut allergy is to exempt the student from purchasing a meal plan and house the student in a location with a kitchen. That would also take care of the risk of inadvertent use of a peanut product in cafeteria food. Yes, it would be a shame that the student couldn’t share meals with friends in the cafeteria, but less of a shame than requiring an entire student body to adjust to one or two students’ health issues. At some point in their lives these students will have to eat in restaurants, sit next to snackers on buses and in movie theaters, and dine in friends’ homes. Vigilance will always be a part of their adult lives, and there’s no reason why that vigilance can’t begin in college.</p>
<p>Is this Swat or Northwestern? (I’m guessing it’s Swarthmore, since it’s smaller.)</p>
<p>Wellesley. I addressed it to Consolation since she went there and would know the dorm I was talking about. </p>
<p>I don’t see the problem with having one dorm cafeteria be peanut -free and ensuring all the peanut-allergic students stay there. </p>
<p>As someone with a shellfish allergy, I have never heard of it being triggered by inhalation and I consider it in a completely different plane from a peanut allergy. I can go to restaurants where all they serve is seafood, and I’m fine as long as I don’t eat it. That just cannot be compared to a peanut allergy person who is sensitive to what others around him eat. That’s the distinction.</p>
<p>Thumper, just a point of clarification- plain M&M’ s do not contain peanuts. They are made in a facility that also makes products with peanuts in them so in order to cover themselves for liability the label states ‘‘may contain peanuts’’. Products that are labeled ‘‘may’’ do not actually contain the allergic ingredient. The worry there is the slight chance of cross contamination.</p>
<p>Got this off the web.
Is inhalation of fumes from cooking shellfish dangerous?</p>
<p>When shellfish is cooked, its proteins may become airborne, and for some sensitive individuals inhalation of the cooking vapors can cause a severe allergic reaction. As a precaution, people who are allergic to shellfish should avoid areas where shellfish is being cooked and should carry an auto-injectable epinephrine (adrenaline) device.</p>
<p>Knit kneel…yes. But the point is, someone with a severe peanut allergy is NOT going to eat an M/M or any other product with that label.</p>
<p>I believe the OP said her kid’s school had only ONE dining hall. Is that correct?</p>
<p>I am allergic to scallops. Many seafood places use them in many dishes. I always worry when I go someplace where they are served!</p>
<p>Well, not always. My kiddo’s BFF is severely peanut allergic and eats plain M&M’ s all the time. Parents did the research and found the risk to be considerably less than the cafeteria issue.</p>
<p>And what will they do for those who have severe reactions to bee stings? Remove all the flowers on campus?</p>
<p>This is an interesting article from my local paper regarding a high school student with an allergy to AXE. Although my heart aches for this young man, I see where it would be near impossible to get high school boys to comply.
[Bethlehem</a> Area high school student with Axe allergy hospitalized after exposure | lehighvalleylive.com](<a href=“Bethlehem Area high school student with Axe allergy hospitalized after exposure - lehighvalleylive.com”>Bethlehem Area high school student with Axe allergy hospitalized after exposure - lehighvalleylive.com)</p>
<p>Plain M&M s used to contain peanuts-they were listed as the last ingredient on the package, but now it is listed as may contain. </p>
<p>Conventional peanut oil is not allergenic because it does not contain the protein. Cold pressed peanut oil is allergenic. How many of you have ever seen cold pressed peanut oil?</p>
<p>I think what this school has done is unnecessary and yes my kids are anaphylactic to peanuts and tree nuts. They’ve managed fine throughout school from elementary through college. </p>
<p>Pizzagirl, as Michigan pointed out, shellfish can be in the same league as peanuts as far as inhalation issues.</p>
<p>i don’t remember hearing about peanut allergy years ago. Is it in fact more prevalent now, oR is that just my perception?</p>
<p>Until you have a kid with one of these allergies, you just won’t get it. It seems to me that if a college has only one dining hall, perhaps they shouldn’t serve food in it that’s a deadly poison to a significant percentage of its students. I think what that percentage is matters, but nut allergies are fairly common.</p>
<p>@ Post #22 -CTTC, it’s the former. The latter has multiple dining halls so this wouldn’t necessarily be as much of an issue. My feeling is that the college has really overreacted, even though I know and understand that there may be a few students who have severe peanut allergy. But, as others have expressed, how are these students going to function in other settings if they don’t learn how to protect themselves in a dining hall? Will peanut products be outlawed in the dorms, in the classrooms? If so, how will that be enforced? How can these students walk into any dining establishment?</p>
<p>This strikes me like making the city sole the sidewalk so that you can walk barefoot. That said, as long as anyone can choose a different dining hall if they want/need nuts for dietary reasons, I don’t see it as that big of a deal. </p>
<p>With whatever things my kids have their issues, I do prefer they learn to deal with it in the way they will have to in the world by college. And not in the way they had to when they were seven years old</p>
<p>
Some of them can’t. Others are always taking a risk, even if they are careful and ask about ingredients. Many of them can’t eat in certain kinds of restaurants at all, because there are peanuts in so many foods (i.e., Thai and Vietnamese). Protecting themselves in a dining hall that isn’t peanut-free might mean not eating any foods that other students have access to, which is pretty tough.
Again, I think it matters how many students this applies to, and it also matters how basic the ingredient is. Reasonable minds can disagree about how basic peanuts are, I suppose.</p>
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<p>No, I was referring to Wellesley. I have no idea about the accommodations at Swat.</p>
<p>Wellesley has multiple dining halls. I don’t see what the big deal is that they decided to make one of them peanut-free. (In my daughter’s case, it’s also the hall that provides gluten-free options and a dedicated toaster … but the “regular” gluten-containing food is still there, of course, just separated to avoid contamination.) I can see how it might be a bigger problem in a campus that only had one dining hall, but you know, part of living in a campus community is being aware of the community. I have no peanut allergies, don’t know anyone who does, and I personally love peanut butter, but I’m sensitive to those people who really do have such sensitivities.</p>
<p>Thank for for your reply, OP. That’s the place I figured it was.</p>
<p>PG, I don’t know why you thought I was asking you about Wellesley.</p>
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<p>I’m curious about this also.</p>
<p>I put myself in the place of the person with the life threatening allergy. I’m not the type of person to ask others to accommodate me in ANY situation, so I would take the responsibility to make whatever adjustments are necessary to impact the fewest people possible. I could never ask an entire school district to ban perfumes like the mother in the linked article above is doing.</p>
<p>But we live in a society that feels entitled. I knew it was just a matter of time before peanut bans spread to colleges. What next? The work place lunch room?</p>
<p>
That’s pretty easy to say. Again, I think it matters how many people are inconvenienced by an accommodation, and how big the inconvenience is. But there are (according to one article I read) about 3 million people in the US with nut allergies–that’s pretty many.</p>
<p>I’m not minimizing anyone’s allergies, but I have been an ER nurse for 20yrs. I have yet to see anyone come in for a reaction to peanuts. Not saying it doesn’t happen, I just haven’t seen it. I do see, bee stings, seafood and MSG reactions. So I’m looking at this as another over reaction.</p>