Peanut Allergies and Airplanes

The US Department of Transportation is seeking restrictions on the serving of peanuts on board airplanes due to the increasing number of people with peanut allergies. The peanut industry is not happy with the recommendations. They (correctly) point out that people are allergic to tree nuts, milk, wheat, soy and other foods and no one is calling on a ban of those items.

Okay, can we all just play nice here?

Peanut dust causes an allergic reaction in some who are highly sensitive. Could the airline industry just be accommodating in special cases? People and families who deal with food allergies know what they need. For example, when we fly with peanut, tree nut, milk and egg allergies, I ask to pre-board to wipe down the seating area. I've also had no trouble when requesting that peanuts not be the in-flight snack served aboard our flight. Others may require other accommodations and my hope would be that airlines could meet all reasonable requests.

Here's what the DOT is asking, followed by the peanut industry response.

1 comment:

Colette said...

Even though peanuts aren't a big problem for us I'm in favor of the peanut ban on airplanes. It's a very different problem than wheat etc in most cases and given the closed environment of airplanes it just makes sense. It's like banning smoking...