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.

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Photo: Zeeshan Qureshi (sxc.hu)

Scientists Recognize the Benefits of Psychedelic Drugs

Researchers take a fresh look at psychedelic drugs

While proponents of psychedelics have for decades called the drugs beneficial, serious research has been lacking until recently. The drugs are associated both with the 1960s counterculture, and also with disturbing medical research performed in years past. The CIA's Project MK-ULTRA saw research into various mind-altering substances such as LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin in the 1950s and 1960s. The program was unfortunately also associated with questionable medical ethics both in the United States and in Canada, where experimentation on subjects at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute was very controversial.

More recent research has been conducted to show that psychedelics and other illicit drugs may have therapeutic benefits, after all. Studies in Switzerland, the United States and elsewhere have shown these drugs could be useful for treating a whole range of conditions. Scientists involved with these research efforts are prompting the world to take a new look at the value of psychedelics.

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Photo credit: Wikipedia user Alan Rockefeller