No peanuts!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Apparently an employee at work had a bad allergic reaction to peanut residue that was on a table in the lunchroom.

So now they've made our entire call center peanut free. No employee is permitted to eat anything with peanuts in it at any time. There are notices about this plastered all over the center AND they included a copy of the memo with each employees paycheck last payday.

On top of that, when I went to grab a snack yesterday from the vending machine it looked like suddenly there were fewer choices. Then it hit me: Every type of candy bar with peanuts or peanut butter in it had been removed! Good grief.

Now I grew up with a friend who had a peanut allergy, I know they are serious stuff, but I am wrong in thinking that completely outlawing peanuts in any shape or form at work is overkill? I don't mind washing my hands and wiping off the table after I've eaten something that has peanuts, but to be barred from eating it seems a bit much.

I can't help but wonder if the company is taking these steps out of fear of a potential lawsuit from the allergic employee, which is really sad to be honest with you.

Anyone else have this kind of policy at work?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

No, but in college I worked on the school newspaper with a guy who had a severe peanut allergy.

The way he made it sound, even a little peanut residue could kill him. His body reacted that violently to peanuts.

It seems like overkill, but would it really be overkill to you if you were the one with the allergy?

[Becks]

Are they checking food items that are made at a place that also processes peanuts?

Like IPF said, peanut residue can be very serious.

[CaroPhoenix]

I don't think the company in any way is over-reacting. Allergies, especially peanut ones, are very bad and deadly. I've read/heard of stories about people just smelling peanuts and going into allergic states. It's not pretty. That's why the doctors are always cautious about how old children have to be before they can be introduced to peanut butter. It's amazing how deadly a peanut allergy is.

[Broomjockey]

You know, stuff like this pisses me off. I think it IS overkill. I've looked into it, and as for "You can breathe on them and kill them" there's nothing but anecdotal evidence. Not one proven medical case of it. I can see removing peanut-containing snacks from the vending machine, and asking people to wipe down the table if they have something with peanuts in it, but the person with the allergy needs to take responsibility too. I love peanuts and peanut butter, and I've known people with peanut allergies. They've never had a reaction around me, or in my house. Why? Because they and I were careful. That's all that's needed. A full ban is ridiculous (Yes, I mean worthy of being ridiculed).

[Myra]

I agree with BroomJockey. An all-out ban just seems like they're afraid of lawsuits from the allergic employee.

Also, I remember when I was in school, many moons ago, there were kids who had allergies. But this business of "if I touch a table after a peanut has been on it, I die" is new to me. Is this a new development in the health world or are people with allergies just getting really paranoid? I hope I'm not being offensive, but it's a new deal to me. Perhaps someone on the board has a peanut allergy and can clear this up for me.

[Finduilas]

I have a distant cousin who had an extreme nut allergy. I don't know the details about it, but there was one time when he was attending a dinner party, and my mother had forgotten about his allergy and made a German chocolate cake with walnuts on top....
His mother happened to notice this before my mother took it out of the airtight container she had stored it in, and asked her not to open it, because if it was, he would have a reaction.

I think what it is, is that nuts (excluding peanut butter) are usually consumed dry, and so have dust on them and in the containers. When someone who is allergic to the nuts breathes in the dust, it triggers the allergic reaction.

The person allergic to peanuts in the original post allegedly had the reaction to "peanut residue" which could have been peanut butter that got stuck to the table or it could have been peanut dust.

If I was in that situation, I would find out which one it was. If it was peanut butter that they had touched, then I would suggest having a more stringent cleaning of the breakroom... but if it was dust that they had breathed in, I would suggest perhaps banning dry nuts that would have dust to breathe in.

....Anything to keep my Reese's at close hand!

[Kyree]

The problem is, they /could/ keep the peanut candy, and just put a sign up that says to wash the table, wash your hands, etc.

But. Honestly. How many of your coworkers would follow it? That's what they have to look at. A sign doesn't mean that people are going to follow it. Most coworkers are lazy slobs that just don't give a shit. And the bigger the place you work at, the worse the break room is.

That's what the company has to weigh into its decision.

[Broomjockey]

Why is the company responsible in the first place? Why is it with every type of allergy EXCEPT peanuts, the onus is on the person with the allergy to avoid it. Allergy to peppers? Better ask every person what's in that dish at the pot luck! Allergic to shellfish, better stay away from that soup, just in case the ladle from the clam chowder was used. Allergic to perfume? Just hold your breath until they go away.

But ZOMG?! They have a PEANUT ALLERGY!!!!11!!!elventyonez! No one can have ANYTHING THAT WAS EVER WITHIN A MILE OF A PEANUT!

Show me a workplace that bans something because one co-worker is allergic to it, besides peanuts.

[JustADude]

I am, at heart, a Darwinist, and as such I believe it's up to the individual person to make sure that they're capable of surviving. If a person has a severe allergy, they are responsible for taking care of themselves and making sure that they're not exposed. They need to put on gloves and wipe down the table before they eat at it, check their food for contaminants, and cover their asses. It's not our job to do it for them.

Yes, reasonable accommodation's should be made out of common decency, such as not eating stuff likely to put peanut-dust in the air in their vicinity, but banning every single person in the place from any form of peanuty goodness is just bullshit.

[BlaqueKatt]

my response to this thread is here

and yes my workplace has banned latex balloons-mylar only-because of my allergy(I almost died because of using a band-aid that had latex in the packaging and WAS NOT LABELED AS SUCH)

so yes allergies CAN be that severe-I can't even go into a shoe store because of all the airbourne latex

[Rapscallion]

Where I work, we wholesale wholefoods. Phonecalls often go like this:

PC - Prospective Customer

PC: Now, the important thing is whether or not you can guarantee that all your products are nut/dairy/wheat/soya/dwarf star matter free (delete as apppropriate).

Me: We don't guarantee that. They're packed without them, but there's always the chance of slight contamination in transit or storage from sacks/boxes being stored nearby, or airborne contamination in packing factories.

PC: But why not?

Me: They're not shipped around the world separately, so there is no way we can guarantee it. It's a liability issue. Nobody will guarantee that. If you find someone who will, then you're going to be paying many times normal price. Quite frankly, if you could set up a business where you were able to grow, transport, package, and retail these products yourself, you would have an exclusive market and a licence to print money. Hey, we'd look at buying them from you.

PC: That's what everyone else I asked told me!

Me: That's what everyone else you have yet to ask will tell you.

Rapscallion

[Tuxian]

Re: peanut allergies and the growing number of cases of such.

I read in a magazine somewhere while waiting for a friend to finish their business (I think it was a Time magazine) that part of the reason that peanut allergies have become so much more common these days is related to a number of factors. Some of the possibilites they listed were 1) children born by C-sections, 2) children who aren't either breast-fed or given breast milk instead of per-packaged formulas, and 3) isolation from peanut products in general until after the formative years are over.

I found it interesting that, while we know there are more people allergic to peanuts in this day and age then there were 20, or even 10, years ago, we're still not sure exactly what the cause is.

That being said, however... I am of the opinion that if someone has an allergy, then they need to be proactive in taking care not to trigger it. People allergic to bee stings don't go around chucking rocks at beehives. People who are allergic to shellfish/dairy/just about anything besides nuts take care not to eat those things. But a nut allergy sends everyone into panic mode, for some reason.

I dunno. Perhaps I'm thinking too deeply about this, or my sleep deprivation is kicking in (long nights at work the last couple days).

[powerboy]

I think that the companies go over board. The person with the allergies, should be taking care of themselves. But the one with the Latex allergy, I could see the company banning everything Latex. I had an ex that was deadly allergic to Latex.

[Geek King]

It's really scary that food allergies are on the rise. Thing is, it's only a problem in developed countries.

I wouldn't bet the farm on that. Undeveloped countries could have the same rise, but be unable to tell you why a particular person died.


Another thought: Developed countries have a larger access to different food types, and manufacturers who will mix food types to make new and tasty meals. A person in a third world country could live his whole life with a deadly food alergy and not know because he never came in contact with it.