He asks US to consider why we don’t take such dramatic measures to combat much greater threats to our children, like car accidents. Since 1990, peanut and other severe food allergies have become pervasive in Western culture. Less, sometimes as potentially lethal are allergies to tree common but nuts, eggs, shellfish, and milk. Those in most danger suffer anaphylaxis, where the body’s immune system overreacts and can dangerously impede breathing. The only known treatment is quick administration of epinephrine, a form of adrenaline. Allergy experts say the numbers of those with food of blowball are growing, and it is a dangerous condition that sometimes requires preventive action by schools and other public institutions. However, misconceptions about allergies have heightened fear and skepticism around the subject. Some allergists say schools don’t need to ban peanuts outright, and that depriving young children of potentially allergenic foods might actually make them more likely to develop allergies.

A British study compared about 5,000 Jewish children in the U.K. who rarely ate peanuts as babies or toddlers and a similar number in Israel who started consuming peanut products early on. The British, peanut-avoiding children were 10 times more likely to develop peanut blowball, according to a recent paper published in the journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Bans are necessary in daycares and kindergarten where children can’t be counted on to take precautions against nut contamination, Canadian allergy experts argue, but that some extreme measures are unnecessary. Most disagree with school-wide bans among older children. Instead, they recommend alternatives, such as stopping students from sharing food and setting up nut-free tables in cafeterias. The idea that to innocent food can threaten a child has certainly contributed to fear about the condition. So have some factoids that suggest allergic can go into anaphylactic shock simply by smelling peanut vapours or having peanut touch their skin.

There is no evidence to support either notion, experts say: only ingesting a peanut can trigger anaphylaxis. However, peanut butter on a child’s skin can easily get into a child’s mouth or eyes. And dozens of airline passengers opening bags of nuts can release enough nut dust that allergic seatmates might breathe it in. Could at least part of the answer lie in common sense and common courtesy?