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Question: There is a peanut-allergic student in the classroom. How should this student best be protected from accidental peanut exposure at school?

1. Home school the child
2. Make the school peanut free
3. Send a body guard to school with your child
4. Take precautions including: wash hands and surfaces after food exposure, have a conference with the school nurse, teacher, food preparation staff and principal; have self-injectable epinephrine immediately available at school; have a written food allergy/anaphylaxis plan at school, wear an allergy identification bracelet; and have Dr. Zach come to your school and provide an in-service to the teachers and staff on early identification and treatment of allergic reactions.

The correct answer is 4.

Frequently, the question arises….What should be used to clean hands and table tops to decrease the chance of residual food allergy?

Cleaning Table Tops:

Researchers have examined methods for cleaning peanut allergen (Ara h 1) from surfaces. They found that common household cleaning agents, such as Formula 409™, Lysol Sanitizing Wipes™ and Target™ brand cleaner with bleach, removed the peanut allergen from table tops. Dish washing liquid left traces of peanut allergen on 4 of 12 tables!

Cleaning Hands:

For this experiment, researchers coated the hands of study participants with a teaspoon of peanut butter and then asked them to wash their hands normally with soap and water, with hand wipes, or with antibacterial hand sanitizer.

Washing with soap (liquid or bar) and commercial wipes (Wet Ones™ and Tidy Tykes™) were effective in removing peanut allergen. Plain water left detectable peanut allergen on 3 of 12 hands, while antibacterial hand sanitizer left detectable peanut allergen on 6 of 12 hands.

The take home message: Plain old soap and water are the most effective tools for removing peanut residue from hands. If a person is away from water, using baby wipes is an effective alternative. Hand sanitizer does not remove peanut protein!

Here is the link for the article published in Journal of Allergy Clinical Immunology in 2004.

http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(04)01067-X/fulltext#section10

The Voluntary Guidelines for Managing Food Allergies in Schools and Early Care and Education Programs from the CDC were released in October 2013 and have incorporated this information. The full report can be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/foodallergies/pdf/13_243135_A_Food_Allergy_Web_508.pdf In this reports, “State and local health regulations, generally based on the FDA Model Food Code,79 provide school districts, schools, and ECE programs with requirements governing the cleaning and sanitizing of surfaces and other practices that can protect against the unintentional transfer of residue or trace amount of an allergic food into another food. Some practices to reduce this cross-contact include the following:

Clean and sanitize with soap and water or all-purpose cleaning agents and sanitizers that meet state and local food safety regulations, all surfaces that come into contact with food in kitchens, classrooms, and other locations where food is prepared or eaten. Cleaning with water alone will not remove food allergens.

Use appropriate hand-washing procedures that emphasize the use of soap and water. Hand sanitizers are not effective in removing food allergens.”

At Family Allergy & Asthma Care of Montana, we want to keep little ones safe at school!

This information is solely for informational purposes and not intended as a substitute for consultation with a medical professional.