Last week, Lianne Mandelbaum – founder of the No Nut Traveler blog – was featured on NPR’s Here & Now to discuss the difficulties of traveling by air with a severe peanut allergy.
Lianne describes the need for early boarding, buffer zones, and stock epinephrine on every flight. The 10 minute segment entitled A Push To Make Flying Safer For People With Peanut Allergies is well worth the time and you can listen to it here:
Lianne is working with Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE), Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, and the Asthma and Allergy Network to promote passage of the Airline Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, bipartisan legislation introduced to the US Senate as S1972.
SnackSafely.com fully supports S1972 and urges you to contact your senators to voice your support as well.
It’s “great” that they have pretzels instead of nuts – but does no good when the pretzels are made in facilities that also process nuts / peanuts. The Airline industry also needs to address other food allergies not just peanuts – especially on international flights where you can not bring certain foods (i.e. meat, cheese, fruit, etc. depending where you are flying from). Two years ago, I called the airline before flying internationally with my nut-allergy kiddo to see about the airlines protocols and ordering allergy-safe food for him — no such thing. They had kosher, vegan, and gluten free, but no allergen-safe options. I understand that they can’t cater to everyone last minute – but they should make an effort when you call a month ahead – especially when trapped on a flight for 10 hours. Or allow consumption-based transportation of restricted foods for people with life threatening allergies.