After the airlines touted their HEPA air filtration systems and fought to end the mask mandate during COVID, did they change their nut allergy policies?

If so, how?

If not, why?

Should they? First of all, de hepa filters block the proteins which are smaller than the corona virus?

Secondly, minimal exposure to that protein can result in a quick death in the case of peanuts (if the reciever is unlucky), less so for covid.

Thirdly, you can protect yourself from the virus by wearing a mask. Not foolproof, but a mask does nothing against a peanut allergy.

And lastly, airlines never said the cabin was a guaranteed virus/infection free zone. A (small) chance of infection was never excluded, just minimized.
Seeing the risk of an allergic reaction to peanuts, including a rather high chance of death in some persons, it would be wise to further reduce the risk by implementing additional rules

Why should they?? Airlines been serving nuts for decades....no reason to stop now because 1-5 people have a nut allergy. Its not like people are flinging their nuts all around the plane!

Eikie wrote:

Thirdly, you can protect yourself from the virus by wearing a mask. Not foolproof, but a mask does nothing against a peanut allergy.

I believe an Epi pen provides a fair amount of protection against allergies. Not foolproof, nothing is, but it's a reasonable workaround. If people are really that worried then don't fly with the general public.

Fixinthe757 wrote:

Why should they?? Airlines been serving nuts for decades....no reason to stop now because 1-5 people have a nut allergy. Its not like people are flinging their nuts all around the plane!

Many airlines, at least in the US, moved away from serving nuts (at least in economy) years ago.

SamYeager2016 wrote:

Eikie wrote:

Thirdly, you can protect yourself from the virus by wearing a mask. Not foolproof, but a mask does nothing against a peanut allergy.

I believe an Epi pen provides a fair amount of protection against allergies. Not foolproof, nothing is, but it's a reasonable workaround. If people are really that worried then don't fly with the general public.

Really? You call a last ditch emergency measure, which if not works, results in death, reasonable?
An epi pen is used when the allergic reaction has occurred and is actually life threatening at that moment. It's not something you use before flight for the privilege of others to eat peanuts.

Reasonable would be forgoing your peanuts for 7 hours if that helps a severely allergic person.

The person with the allergy is the one that needs to change,not the travelling public. Many of the nut allergy people have completely unreasonable expectations. I'm fine with airlines trying to not including nuts in their snacks but if your allergy is so severe that someone having a Snickers bar 10 rows away is going to send you into shock you probably should not travel by plane. It not reasonable to expect 400 strangers to adjust their plans to accomodate you.

usflyer msp wrote:

The person with the allergy is the one that needs to change,not the travelling public. Many of the nut allergy people have completely unreasonable expectations. I'm fine with airlines trying to not including nuts in their snacks but if your allergy is so severe that someone having a Snickers bar 10 rows away is going to send you into shock you probably should not travel by plane. It not reasonable to expect 400 strangers to adjust their plans to accomodate you.

Not to mention that reaction from airborne peanut dust is extremely rare and largely a sensationalized thing. Oftentimes those with peanut allergies get a panic attack at the first sniff of peanuts and immediately mistake the panic attack as a sign of anaphylaxis.

Numerous studies (https://healthtalk.unchealthcare.org/ca ... -reaction/) (https://www.aaaai.org/allergist-resourc ... air-travel) have indicated that there is virtually little risk from flying.

People with allergies make decisions everyday as to what is best for them. I have a Shellfish Allergy and have epi-pens in sporadic places and always travel with one. I know I have this allergy and avoid places, such as Red Lobster, so I don't have issues. The responsibility is on the person with the allergy.

My brother has a VERY severe peanut allergy and is able to take precautions, communicate with crews and fly without issue. I got in a heated debate on these very forums over 10 years ago about what should and shouldn't be considered accommodation-wise but if the allergic pax is aware, alert and proactive it certainly can be done.

The medical evaluation and advice has changed over the years, particularly from some of the sensationalist things we may have read about back then. Does anyone have a quick update?

Peanuts aren't very good anyway, I would rather have almost any other snack offered. The day they quit offering them was a win in my book. So I'll side with no peanuts for personal reasons but I am happy to say it is because of people with allergies if that helps.

Southwest seems to have ditched the nuts and now hands out a small bag of pretzels. Due to the nut issue? Not sure.

I heard an anecdote from a WN mechanic who said in the old days during aircraft inspection one early task was to vacuum up all the nuts caught down in the seat rails. There are probably nuts near everyone's feet while flying on an airliner.

Eikie wrote:

SamYeager2016 wrote:

Eikie wrote:

Thirdly, you can protect yourself from the virus by wearing a mask. Not foolproof, but a mask does nothing against a peanut allergy.

I believe an Epi pen provides a fair amount of protection against allergies. Not foolproof, nothing is, but it's a reasonable workaround. If people are really that worried then don't fly with the general public.

Really? You call a last ditch emergency measure, which if not works, results in death, reasonable?
An epi pen is used when the allergic reaction has occurred and is actually life threatening at that moment. It's not something you use before flight for the privilege of others to eat peanuts.

Reasonable would be forgoing your peanuts for 7 hours if that helps a severely allergic person.

You can't live your life demanding the kindness of complete strangers. That is not reasonable and very entitled.

usflyer msp wrote:

Eikie wrote:

SamYeager2016 wrote:

I believe an Epi pen provides a fair amount of protection against allergies. Not foolproof, nothing is, but it's a reasonable workaround. If people are really that worried then don't fly with the general public.

Really? You call a last ditch emergency measure, which if not works, results in death, reasonable?
An epi pen is used when the allergic reaction has occurred and is actually life threatening at that moment. It's not something you use before flight for the privilege of others to eat peanuts.

Reasonable would be forgoing your peanuts for 7 hours if that helps a severely allergic person.

You can't live your life demanding the kindness of complete strangers. That is not reasonable and very entitled.

If not eating a bag of peanuts for a few hours is too much to bear, if not having some nuts to not kill another human being is unthinkable, society is truly lost.

Imagine not being able to say goodbye to your dying father in the other part of the country, because on that 1 flight (or 2, if you go back) somebody refused to be without a snack so you could live through the flight.

With all my respect to people with allergies but this is too much drama for my taste.

Are there any banned allergy causing substances by airlines? I have not heard of any. What would be the proposal? No peanuts, or no food with peanuts in them in an airport or aircraft? The latter would be practically impossible.

Eikie wrote:

usflyer msp wrote:

Eikie wrote:

Really? You call a last ditch emergency measure, which if not works, results in death, reasonable?
An epi pen is used when the allergic reaction has occurred and is actually life threatening at that moment. It's not something you use before flight for the privilege of others to eat peanuts.

Reasonable would be forgoing your peanuts for 7 hours if that helps a severely allergic person.

You can't live your life demanding the kindness of complete strangers. That is not reasonable and very entitled.

If not eating a bag of peanuts for a few hours is too much to bear, if not having some nuts to not kill another human being is unthinkable, society is truly lost.

Imagine not being able to say goodbye to your dying father in the other part of the country, because on that 1 flight (or 2, if you go back) somebody refused to be without a snack so you could live through the flight.

Your health is your problem not anyone elses; why should someone feel bad for doing something people normally do on airplanes? It is entitled to assume that everyone else should accommodate you instead of you avoiding putting yourself in potentially dangerous situations.

Eikie wrote:

usflyer msp wrote:

Eikie wrote:

Really? You call a last ditch emergency measure, which if not works, results in death, reasonable?
An epi pen is used when the allergic reaction has occurred and is actually life threatening at that moment. It's not something you use before flight for the privilege of others to eat peanuts.

Reasonable would be forgoing your peanuts for 7 hours if that helps a severely allergic person.

You can't live your life demanding the kindness of complete strangers. That is not reasonable and very entitled.

If not eating a bag of peanuts for a few hours is too much to bear, if not having some nuts to not kill another human being is unthinkable, society is truly lost.

Imagine not being able to say goodbye to your dying father in the other part of the country, because on that 1 flight (or 2, if you go back) somebody refused to be without a snack so you could live through the flight.

The biggest with all of this to me is, where does it stop? So you don't have peanuts for the passenger that is allergic to peanuts, what about all of the other 10,000 things people can be allergic too? What about the person that is allergic to dogs and cats that are allowed on planes? What about the person that is allergic to perfume smells, or that person that is allergic to latex? The biggest thing is people need to do what is best for themselves. Thing is if you ban stuff because of a persons allergic nature to it, then don't you have to do it for the rest and that in itself is impossible.

Let me try again and get this thread back on topic.

Airlines touted their HEPA air filtration systems as being very effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus. Airlines felt so strongly that their air filtration systems worked so well that US airline executives fought Washington to end the mask mandate.

Prior to the pandemic the big scare with nut allergies was nut dust.

If the airlines feel so strongly that their air filtration systems work effectively against the spread of an airborne virus, why do airlines still go along with passengers’ no nuts demands?

questions wrote:

If the airlines feel so strongly that their air filtration systems work effectively against the spread of an airborne virus, why do airlines still go along with passengers’ no nuts demands?

Optics (in both cases)

why not make flights food and booze free ?no i didn't think people would agree so why should 1 person who has a problem with nuts be on a flight that will stop people eating nuts a total strange as well ,if you are that bad a car trip can be taken instead of a flight