The fearsome Peanut

When chemist George Washington Carver began his discovery of the myriad uses of the peanut, little did the unwitting American public understand that Dr. Carver was in fact creating a monster. ( I was tempted to use the term "peanutstein" but that would be going to far. )

Anyway, 100+ years later, Carver's discoveries strike fear in the hearts of frail children and anxiety-ridden mothers from Seattle to Annapolis and all points in between. Peanut Butter - once the staple food of champions (and something I literally lived on for more than 2 months at sea) is now believed to be as deadly as Anthrax and something to be avoided at all costs. The reason? Allergies.
School districts throughout the country are asking parents to rid their children's lunch boxes of this nasty menace. Is this fear unfounded? Or is the sinister peanut biding its time, while hapless children munch blithely away on their modern hemlock?

Today a frantic mom told me that she was asked not to pack peanut butter anymore because the "scent" of it is enought to trigger allergic reactions in some children.

Since I am embarking upon a career in science (well, sort of - medicine is actually a combination of art and science) I thought I would use this time to find out what the skinny is regarding peanut butter.

For the frantic mom, I didn't need to consult the latest scientific journals because I already knew that peanut butter's molecular structure is a SOLID, not a GAS, so unless someone stuffs it up their nose, it would be impossible for the substance of peanut butter to react with one's immune system.

Now, as the Thomas Dolby would say; science!

In the Journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy (Clinical & Experimental Allergy
Volume 35 Issue 7 Page 933 - July 2005), the results of a test conducted by researchers at the Imerial College at St. Mary's London tested 13,638 seven-year old individuals, of which 6,412 yielded results. (I guess the others snuck off for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - ungrateful cretins).

Anyway, the chillins were exposed to MTV, aeroallergens (dust mites, cats, dogs, horses, rabbits, and one other thing. Then, as if this weren't cruel enough the children were exposed to peanuts and other nuts as well as more than a few very angry squirrels.)

The result of all of this exposure was that 8.5% of the population demonstrated some reaction to the airborne allergens and 1% demonstrated the same reaction to the evil nuts. Hopefully they were all allergic to MTV.

If this data is to be extrapolated (and it is), this test reveals the following:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are now approximately 72 million persons under the age of 18 living in this country. If 1% of them would suffer an allergic reaction to the peanut or any nut, this amounts to 720,000. If we spread them evenly between states, (which, of course they are not) then we would get 14,400 children per state who demonstrate an allergic reaction to peanuts. In Texas there may be 81 school districts (not sure - couldn't get a definite number from the TEA website) which would mean 177 children per district. The state's largest district is Houston, which has more than 50,000 students. There are at least 300 schools in this district (per the HISD website, not counting charter or magnet schools) which means a bit more than half of all schools could have a child with an allergic reaction to nuts.

But this test was conduct with BRITISH children, not Americans. When a similar test was conducted by the NIH (Prevalences of positive skin test responses to 10 common allergens in the US population: results from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.) they found that Americans are far more sensitive to allergens than our English counterparts. The NIH study - not nearly as comprehensive, nearly 3% demonstrated a positive reaction to nut allergens.

Even if the results were tripled, this would still mean that each school district in Texas (statstically, very loose, I know) would only have 2 or 3 students who were allergic to peanut allergens. While this seems incredibly inconsequential, it is very symbolic of our nation at this time. We are ruled by minutae. Instead of the minority or aberrant, making their way in society, society must bend to make way for them. This is why the single Epehdra patient who died was allowed to create a huge windfall for the plaintiff's lawyers, and why persons who die from smoking still sue tobacco companies for wrongful death.

And this is why school districts want the thousands of parents with children who don't have allergies to change their lives to accomodate the very few who do.

Children who have allergic reactions to peanuts should not touch them. Such reactions can be anaphylactic or hypotensive, meaning they can bring on very nasty symptoms. If your child has a KNOWN allergy to these substances, then avoid them. But don't try and make all of society accomodate you and your child. Instead send your child to school with chicken salad, or just jelly and train them to avoid the foods which cause problems. There are many more times the number of children in society who suffer from genetic diabetes. Should all sugars be eliminated so that they won't be tempted to risk their lives by eating them? Of course not, and parents of diabetic children DO teach their kids what they can and cannot eat.

Give GW Carver his due and society a break. The peanut is a great thing; so is peanut butter. We ought to be asking ourselves why we are 3 times more allergic that the Brits, but we should also be willing to take responsibility for ourselves, our children and our actions - and hopefully research will soon bring about a prophylactic against peanut allergies.

Meanwhile, if you care to join me, I would be happy to share my peanut butter sandwich with you!