I CAN’T GET a takeaway from Chinese restaurants, I have to carry an adrenaline auto-injector with me wherever I go and if I swallow a peanut, I could be dead within 20 minutes.
Growing up with a serious peanut allergy was quite an inconvenience. Because I was born with the allergy, reading the ingredients on food packaging became second nature to me.
I grew up having to be so alert about everything I ate. The same five words are written on so many food products that cause me to sigh in disappointment: “May contain traces of nuts.”
There are so many foods I can’t eat because of this allergy.
It’s easier to just avoid them entirely
Curry is one that tends to surprise people the most. Many curries are cooked with peanut oil, so I find it easier to just avoid them entirely. Dozens of people have asked me whether or not I can eat popcorn, to which I usually reply: “It’s called pop-corn, not pop-nuts.”
On Pancake Tuesday this year, I had to leave my friends’ house because I was getting wheezy from the Nutella fumes in the air. Although I have never swallowed a peanut, I have had many reactions just from being in their presence.
My eyes water, breathing becomes difficult and start sneezing like mad. It’s not pleasant, to say the least.
A few years ago I carelessly ate a packet of crisps in America that were supposedly cooked in peanut oil. I began to get breathless so I thought I was having a reaction but it was actually just from sheer panic because I had never been in that situation before.
Apparently when crisps are cooked in peanut oil, the allergen gets removed. I didn’t realise this at the time and I had my EpiPen on hand, ready to stab it into my leg if required.
Life-saving EpiPens
Health Minister Leo Varadkar announced yesterday that there are new laws that permit the administration of life-saving medicines like EpiPens by trained members of the public, something which should have happened a long time ago.
This came about in response to the tragic case of Emma Sloan who died in 2013 as a result of eating peanuts and being refused an EpiPen because she didn’t have a prescription. It is such a disgrace that it takes a fatality for something to be done about this.
As part of the new law, schools, colleges and workplaces can carry EpiPens and other life-saving drugs but are not obligated to do so.
Pharmacists can now give the EpiPens in emergency situations, provided they have been trained in how to use them.
I have to purchase two new EpiPens every year, each costing about 50 euro, and I have never had to use one. I also must to go to the doctor to renew my prescription each year, which costs another €45.
That’s about €150 for something I will hopefully never have to use. Since I discovered my allergy when I was four years old, roughly €2,550 has been spent just in case I eat a peanut.
Peanut oil used in everything
This year I went to New York on a J1 visa and I was so apprehensive because I knew that peanut oil is used much more there than it is here. Everywhere I ate, I had to ask about the ingredients. There were times when I couldn’t eat pastries or even fries that my friends were eating.
There was one bakery where the staff couldn’t tell me whether a pastry was sprinkled with nuts or sugar, despite the fact that it was baked on the premises.
There is still a certain ignorance within the food industry about allergies and their severity and it is something that needs to be discussed in the media a lot more frequently and not just when someone dies.
When I hear stories like the one of Emma Sloan, it sends a shiver down my spine because I immediately think: “that could have been me.”
But with further development of these new laws and more information about allergies being published in the media, these situations can stop happening.
Aoibheann Diver is a freelance journalist. You can follow here @aoibheanndiver and on Facebook.
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