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Inconvenient: The reality of living with food allergies

Earlier this week, a video was circulating on the internet showing a school board meeting in Michigan. In it, school board members were discussing food allergies and the effect they have on foods being allowed in school.

“Well, you should just shoot them,” a school board member said. She threw her arms up and shrugged a little after she said it. She was clearly kidding. It was a joke to her. It is the sort of thing said when forced to discuss inconveniences at length. She said it because food allergies are inconvenient and she was tired of talking about inconvenient things.

Linda Grossman did not want to harm food allergic children. She was just tired of talking about food allergies.

I am also tired. I am tired of people saying things like this that are meant in jest but are insidious and disrespectful and deeply hurtful.

I am tired of people behaving like food allergies are a personality attribute, not a life threatening medical condition.

I am tired of people feeling like they have more of a right to convenience than food allergic people have to be alive.

As of 2010, an estimated 8.96% of adults and 6.53% of children in the US are food allergic. Averaged, this means that about 1/13 people in the US have food allergies. 1/13 means that on average, each classroom in the US can be expected to have 1-2 food allergic students. Among asthmatic children, the frequency of food allergy skyrockets to a whopping 24%. Childhood food allergies cost approximately 25 billion dollars a year in the US.

Frequency of food allergy rose 50% between 1997 and 2011, with peanut allergy alone tripling in that time. As many as 40% of food allergic children have previously had severe anaphylactic reactions that could have resulted in death. Severe reactions requiring hospitalization have increased sevenfold in the last ten years in Europe.

Food allergy is the most common cause of anaphylaxis outside of a hospital setting and results in 200,000 emergency department visits yearly. This equates to one person every three minutes. It is estimated that 100-200 people die from food allergies each year in the US, with numerous conflicting reports.

I am tired of food allergic people and families having to beg for steps to help prevent DEATH.

I am tired of people feeling that making practical changes to prevent people from DYING is inconvenient.

I am tired of people making jokes about a medical issue that KILLS people.

I am tired of food allergic people being excluded from everything because their LIFE THREATENING condition is INCONVENIENT for the other people there.

I am tired of living in a world that prioritizes convenience over the health and welfare of its people.

I am tired of people who should damn well know better spouting dangerously inaccurate facts about food allergy. So I’m putting all my other posts on hold and we’re going to talk about food allergies, FPIES, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease, celiac disease, and a-gal allergy.

This is not a joke. Anaphylaxis is not a joke. Food allergic people are not jokes. It’s time to stop pretending comments like these aren’t damaging. It’s time for us to stand up and fight.