BBC Schools May 5th 2004

williamsmummy gave me permission to post the following as she is not well (and here's hoping she gets better [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img] ):-

Schools become 'nut-free zones'
By Sean Coughlan
BBC News Online education staff

Schools are increasingly becoming "nut-free zones" as fears over
allergies
prompt bans on peanuts in packed lunches.

An allergy expert says almost every school in the country now has at
least
one pupil with a nut allergy - compared with a generation ago when
this
would have been a rarity.

As a result, many schools are taking the decision to ban or
discourage
parents from allowing their children to bring food containing nuts
into
school.

The number of children developing nut allergies has risen sharply -
leaving
schools with tough decisions about protecting pupils from
potentially
fatal
exposure to food such as peanuts, walnuts, almonds and Brazil nuts.

Inhalers and injections

As well as banning food with nuts, this has meant that schools,
which
already have a growing collection of asthma inhalers, also have to
look
after the adrenaline injections needed by pupils with nut allergies.

This is a 'peanut free' school. In the interests of other children
with
nut
allergies, please do not include peanuts in your child's packed
lunch
Example of a Dorset primary school allergy policy
The Anaphylaxis Campaign, which aims to help people with allergies,
says
there are studies suggesting a threefold increase in the numbers of
people
with nut allergies since the mid-1990s.

For schools, the greatest fear is that a pupil with such an allergy
will
suffer an acute, sometimes life-threatening allergic reaction, which
can
occur within seconds of exposure to nuts.

The campaign's director, David Reading, says that it is believed
that
there
are about six or seven allergy-related deaths among young people
each
year.

These fatalities tend to be among teenagers, he says, because the
diets
of
younger pupils are much easier to control.

Serious risk

Jonathan Hourihane, a consultant paediatrician and senior lecturer
at
Southampton University, who has researched in this field, says it
remains
unclear why there has been such a sudden increase in allergies.

But he says that research in Britain, the US and Canada has clearly
demonstrated a steep increase since the mid-1990s.

This suggests that about 1% of all children now have a nut allergy -
which
would mean that there are likely to be several such allergic
children in
every average-size school.

These children can have extreme sensitivity to nuts with reports
that
even
opening a jar of peanut butter in the same room could trigger an
allergic
reaction.

Indirect contact can also cause an allergic response, he says, such
as a
parent who has eaten nuts then kissing their child goodnight.

Given the serious risk to pupils with allergies, he says that it
does not
seem excessive to ask parents not to allow their children to bring
food
to
school containing nuts.

But such bans can have "pitfalls", says David Reading of the
Anaphylaxis
Campaign.

Children also have to learn for themselves how to avoid nuts, he
says -
because outside school they will face situations where they will
need to
make such choices.

Unhappy parents

There can also be problems with other parents. Muriel Simmons, chief
executive of Allergy UK, says that some parents refuse to co-operate
with
a
peanut ban - saying it's their right to send their children to
school
with
foods containing nuts.

It is regrettable that some schools feel the need to ban nuts from
their
schools
KP Nuts spokesperson
In such cases, parents with allergic children are encouraged to
write to
other parents, explaining what will happen if their child is exposed
to
nuts.

They can also explain how difficult it is to stop food being spread
or
shared within a school - for example, if a pupil has been eating
peanut
butter sandwiches and then touches a door handle.

Teachers, facing a more litigious culture, can also be reluctant to
take
on
responsibility for administering the adrenaline injections.

Bob Carstairs of the Secondary Heads' Association says that many
teachers
are "quite clearly worried" about taking on such medical tasks - and
he
says that there are law companies deliberately seeking compensation
cases
surrounding these injections.

United Biscuits, owner of the peanut brand, KP, says: "It is
regrettable
that some schools feel the need to ban nuts from their schools and
we
hope
that consumers have an opportunity to enjoy KP Nuts at other
occasions."

And the company says it is "supportive in clearly labelling where
nuts
are
present at any level as an ingredient in a product".

Sun cream ban

Teachers and parents now face a growing and often confusing
checklist of
health items that might or might not be allowed in school.

There has been a dispute this week over sun cream - with an
eight-year-old
boy being banned from bringing it into his Bristol primary school.

The ban was because sun cream was deemed a medication - and as such
a
potential hazard to other pupils.

Recently teachers were warned by a union that they should apply sun
cream
to pupils to avoid the risk of litigation over pupils getting sun
burn.

Teachers had previously been warned not to apply sun cream to pupils
because this could be misinterpreted as an assault.

In another case, schools had been told not to apply sun-tan lotion -
in
case it caused allergies.

Story from BBC NEWS:
[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/3682659.stm"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/3682659.stm[/url]

Published: 2004/05/05 01:15:00 GMT