Nut allergies: How effective is banning the peanut?

Peanutlovers might call it awar on peanuts.

The board of healthin Hamilton, Ont.,has voted to study the possibility of banning peanuts from all city buildings, including football and hockey stadiums and recreation centres. The legumes are already banned from public schools.

It's all in the name of preventing allergic reactions some of which can be potentially fatal.

But how effective would itbe?

• Hamilton looks at banning peanuts at stadium, arenas

"There's not a ton of data to support restrictions," said Dr. Douglas Mack, alocalpediatricallergist and adviserto the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Kids will do fine with a ban being dropped. Dr. Douglas Mack

Hamilton officialsvoted unanimously in favour of studying the measure at a meeting on Monday.This came after a plea from local resident Ian Thompson and his wife Melissa.They have a nine-year-old daughter who is severely allergic to peanuts, which sets limits on where her family can take her.

Thompson told us they were motivated by a Hamilton Tiger-Cats game he attended with his daughterFiona. He said peanuts were everywhere, with shells blowing through the stadium as football fans ate them and casually tossed the shells.

ButMack has been studying the efficacy of food restrictions in public places and believes the ban may backfire.

"If anything, [a recent Canadian study]shows that the risk my be potentially slightly higher," he said. "Having those restrictions gives a false sense of security."

Best protection

Mack saidthe data shows that, in schools that have banned peanuts, one per cent of lunches still have peanuts in them.

So either way, children with peanut allergies need to develop skills to prevent reactions themselves, he said.

"Kids will do fine with a ban being dropped," he said. "In the rest of the world outside North America, schools don't have this restriction."

"The best protection is knowing how to administerepinephrine," the drug used to treat reactions, "and making sure all public facilities have access it."

He pointed out thatsome schools in Quebecare considering lifting their bans.

As for banning the sale of peanuts at the Tiger-Cats' stadium and other public facilities, "there is not enough evidence to support that," Mack said.

He says about half of all allergic reactions happen inside the family's or friends' homes. Onlyseven per cent of them happenat schools or daycares.

Mack has already contacted the city about his opposition to the ban, and he plans to speak out more if it goes ahead.