Courtesy of Kids with Food Allergies Foundation, March 15, 2013
Few situations can provoke more anxiety for people with peanut or tree-nut allergies than having an allergic reaction while flying on an airplane and being unable to get help.
But in a new study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology-In Practice, researchers found passengers who engaged in eight mitigating factors were less likely to report an allergic reaction.
This is the first study to show that in-flight peanut and tree nut allergy is an international problem, says lead author and pediatrician Matthew Greenhawt, M.D., M.B.A., M.Sc., of the University of Michigan’s Food Allergy Center and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Past research has focused on the U.S. and only on those who had reactions, instead of including those who did not.
Greenhawt, and his co-authors from Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia and the International Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Alliance, asked passengers to answer an online survey about their in-flight experiences. More than 3,200 people from 11 countries completed the survey. Of those, 349 reported having an allergic reaction during an airline flight.
Passengers with peanut/tree nut allergies who reported taking these actions had significantly lower odds of reporting a reaction:
(1) requesting any accommodation
(2) requesting a peanut/tree nut-free meal
(3) wiping their tray table with a commercial wipe
(4) avoiding use of airline pillows
(5) avoiding use of airline blankets
(6) requesting a peanut/tree nut-free buffer zone
(7) requesting other passengers not consume peanut/tree nut-containing products
(8) not consuming airline-provided food
“Flying with a peanut/tree nut allergy is equal parts frustrating and frightening for allergic passengers. These eight passenger-initiated risk-mitigating behaviors may help clinicians wishing to advise concerned patients planning to fly commercially,” says Greenhawt, of U-M’s Food Allergy Center.
In an airplane, re-circulated air puts passengers at greater risk of coming into contact with traces of peanut dust than they would be in a non-enclosed space. Many airlines customarily serve small bags of peanuts as an in-flight snack, making contact with peanut dust inevitable. However, there are some airlines that no longer serve peanuts, either for allergy or budgetary reasons. These include Continental, United, JetBlue, AirTran, Northwest, and US Airways. Both US Airways and AirTran state that they are "peanut free" airlines. Meanwhile, snacks on American Airlines may contain peanut ingredients, and peanuts are served on Delta and Southwest flights. Canada is the only country with any formal policy in place, which requires a 3-row buffer zone with advance notification only on Air Canada flights.
