Do Your Kids Wear Too Many Silly Bandz?

Silly Bandz warning not a hoax

Those of us who spend a good deal of time on the internet tend to be wary of all the warnings that get passed around by email or through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Many times the messages are out of date or ill-informed, though the intention of the original poster was to help. Sometimes, the original poster intentionally created a hoax. In the case of the current warnings about Silly Bandz injuries, the warnings are authentic. This is not a hoax.

What are Silly Bandz?

Silly Bandz are silicone bands that come in a variety of different colours and shapes. The original bands are worn around the wrist as bracelets, but there are now Silly Ringz, as well as Silly Necklaces and Silly Bandz Carabinerz that allow kids to show off their collections.

Silly Bandz are a huge fashion fad with kids, and according to the product's official blog they are a hit with certain professional athletes too. They are now so popular that Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber has teamed up with the manufacturer. A new Justin Bieber theme pack is currently available for pre-order on the BCP Imports web site.

Read more...

Is it Time for Schools to Change Peanut-Free Policies?

Peanuts have the dubious honour of sitting at or near the top of a list of eight high priority food allergens; the others are tree nuts, sesame seeds, milk, eggs, seafood, soy and wheat. Together they account for 90% of allergic reactions in American children. Policies restricting consumption of foods containing peanuts began to show up around the mid-1990s, due to concerns about severe reactions such as anaphylaxis. The focus has mainly been on peanuts and to some extent tree nuts, whether we are considering public health and school policies, media coverage, or changes in how products are marketed to the public.

Peanut free schools

School policies range in severity, from those that establish peanut-free or peanut-allowed zones to accommodate the greatest number of students, to those that prohibit all foods that may contain peanuts or tree nuts. These policies are based on the concern that an allergic student could accidentally be exposed to peanut protein (the component that triggers the allergic reaction) through touching a contaminated surface or by smelling a product made with peanut. Since avoidance is the main approach to dealing with food allergies at present, policies intended to protect children in schools, summer camps and other places kids congregate are based on helping affected kids to avoid peanuts.

Read more...

Photo: Zeeshan Qureshi (sxc.hu)