<p>"I ask again, why is it that college students can’t live without peanut products? "</p>
<p>Because unlike kindergarteners who have homemade breakfasts and dinners and weekend food, college students eat most of their meals in the cafeteria, not at home.</p>
<p>Googling suggests that the prevalence of peanut allergy specifically in children is probably something more like 1.6% than 5%. Perhaps it’s about 2% if you add in tree nut-only allergies, which you probably should do in the dining hall, since there’s often a lot of overlap between the two.</p>
<p>Is 2% “common?” I still think it is, but obviously those who think 5% isn’t common will disagree. Having an accurate number would help inform the cost-benefit analysis of what accommodations to follow.</p>
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I don’t think anybody said that all peanut allergies are like this–just a small subset of them. But I guess you don’t believe that this kind of hyper-sensitivity really exists?</p>
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<p>The ADA imposes substantial costs on local governments, too, to make facilities such as train stations accessible.</p>
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<p>Probably because we are talking breakfast, lunch and dinner.</p>
<p>As has been stated, and as apparently many don’t realize, peanuts and nuts in general are a major (and healthy) protein source for many people. Removing nuts from one’s diet would be like removing eggs from someone else’s, or dairy, or chicken. Sure, it can be done, but it can be life altering at a time when young adults may be struggling to adapt to college and managing their diets on their own for the first time in their lives.</p>
<p>Also, there are students who are egg or dairy allergic, who already are limited in their protein choices, just as vegetarians and vegans are. People do not want to part from their healthy nuts unless there is a reasonably serious reason to do so.</p>
<p>Yes, I buy your argument about public facilities with a big bunch of “ifs” (because you are not considering every aspect of calculating the NPV of adding an ADA-accommodation to a public facility), but we are talking about private colleges here.</p>
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<p>I’m not a lawyer, but I worked for a personal injury lawyer for a while. I wish I had a dollar for every time I had to type the phrase “the defendant knew or should have known…” </p>
<p>That’s why a university touting a dining hall as “peanut free” seemed to be setting itself up to now be obligated to provide exactly that or face legal consequences in the event something happened. “Nut sensitive,” not so much perhaps…</p>
<p>As already stated, I wouldn’t have a problem with a nut free or nut sensitive dining hall. I do wonder, however, how many incidents of peanut allergy hospitalizations occur every year as a direct result of peanut exposure in dining halls. Has that already been posted?</p>
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<p>Funny. The folks who asked such questions at that workplace were the types to violate the policy to test the boundaries. They all ended up being sent home for the day and fired in short order IME. </p>
<p>Kinda like that parent I mentioned who felt entitled to ignore the official notice from school officials about my friend with the severe PA and then continued to dig himself a deeper hole when he said in a special meeting after the exposure/allergy attack, “What harm could eating a PB sandwich have around him[PA sufferer]?”</p>
<p>Cobrat, I get how heavy perfumes could be undesirable in a work environment for sensitive individuals. But no scented deodorants/lotions/ etc. at peril of being summarily sent home or fired? If someone smokes in their car and you get a whiff of cigarette odor, do you call the supervisor in to do a sniff test and summarily send them home? What about mouthwash odors? Or conversely, bad breath? Your workplace sounds like a military zone with real REAL strict attention to RULES. Are there lots of other rules and punishments and requirements and policies on many other fronts?</p>
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<p>It’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the peanut-allergic student, too.</p>
<p>And that, of course, makes resolving the problem even more difficult.</p>
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<p>Other than those rules and observation of SEC rules & regulations in our work, no. </p>
<p>The only reason they were strict in the perfume/cologne/scented products area was:</p>
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<li><p>Concerns for good well-liked employees who were allergic.</p></li>
<li><p>Finding the need to impose strict rules as a “shot across the bow” because of folks who want to push boundaries on such issues as underscored by the mentality behind Bay’s and Eastcoastcrazy’s questions.</p></li>
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<p>I doubt there is an umbrella organization keeping track of adults beyond their age.
Treatment varies, last year I was given iv steroids/epinephrine plus shots, then a scrip to take home.
But someone else might do ok with a steroid shot.
Mine was not nut related, but of all my emergency room visits last year, it was the one that scared my H the most.
Anaphylaxis kills people.</p>
<p>Heres stats for kids under 18
[Food</a> Allergy Research & Education](<a href=“http://www.foodallergy.org/facts-and-stats]Food”>Facts and Statistics - FoodAllergy.org)</p>
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<p>But if they represent 5% or less of the student population, they’re “uncommon,” and their needs don’t matter. Or so some participants in this thread would have us think.</p>
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<p>Somehow it bothers me that the company might not have imposed similar rules if the allergic employees were unpopular.</p>
<p>Marian, could you then please define “common” in numerical terms.</p>
<p>So the moral of cobrats story is if you have an allergy you need to make sure people like you or else you will not be accomodated…</p>
<p>Actually, those are legitimate questions, that you choose to deflect and not answer. How close can the supervisor get to determine odor? There is a difference between “no perfume” and completely odor free in a work environment.</p>
<p>And what happens to the less well liked employees?</p>
<p>“Uncommon” does not mean “unimportant.”</p>
<p>Vegetarian, and even vegans will not suffer protein deficiency without peanut products. One serving of peanut butter provides about the same amount of protein as:</p>
<p>1 cup cooked spinach
1 1/2 cups broccoli
1 cup peas
1 avocado
2/3 cup green beans
1 cup soy milk
1 serving plain spaghetti
1 1/2 cups sweet potato
1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup kidney, pinto, or black beans
1/2 cup chickpeas
1/2 cup edamame
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 serving sprouted grain bread
1 1/2 servings of Raisin Brand, Wheat Chex, Frosted Mini-Wheats
1 serving Kashi or Grape Nuts
4 ounces of tofu
1/2 cup lentils
2 slices whole wheat bread</p>
<p>plus less common foods like seitan, chia, tempeh and hemp powder</p>
<p>[10</a> Vegan Sources of Protein](<a href=“http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4771/10-Vegan-Sources-of-Protein.html]10”>12 Best Vegan Protein Sources & Sample Meal Plan | mindbodygreen)</p>
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<p>Because unlike kindergarteners who have homemade breakfasts and dinners and weekend food, college students eat most of their meals in the cafeteria, not at home.
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<p>Low income students may have all their meals at school.</p>
<p>RE: Marian</p>
<p>NOBODY who brought those stats into this thread has said that the needs of kids with PA don’t matter. It’s just that taking away a common food staple that 95% is able to eat to accomodate the 5% is not “reasonable accomodation”. There have been plenty of reasonable accomodations suggested in the past 30+ pages of this thread that keep getting dismissed and ignored.</p>
<p>Sally - I think that unfortunately a lot of posters are misinterpreting it in that way</p>
<p>Nobody is suggesting that non-allergic kids be forbidden to eat peanuts, and most of us don’t even think they should be forbidden to eat them in the dining hall. The issue is how to balance what to do about a food that is a staple to a minority, a deadly poison to a smaller minority, and “eh” to many others.</p>