One cannot have an anaphylaxis reaction sitting near their allergen, and with multiple food allergies, we can’t realistically expect travelers to adhere to our food restrictions, especially without warning or training. Imagine boarding a plane with OUR family with the following anaphylaxis allergens: dairy (inc coffee cream, yogurt and cheese), beef, nuts, sesame, pineapple, shellfish! Instead, we must learn to manage our anxiety around our allergens, wash our hands, pack our own snacks and meds, and not rely on others to stop eating food, just because we can’t. The science has proven we can only have a reaction if we touch, or ingest our allergen, or in the very rare occasion, inhale a small particle, when cracking open a ‘peanut in a shell’, or in the case of “fish, shellfish and dairy”, inhale the steamed cooking odors of those foods. Last I checked, planes didn’t serve peanuts in the shell. We cannot have an allergic reaction being in the presence of our allergen, but we can experience anxiety which we must learn to manage.
For our family we manage our allergies very well on a flight. In fact, a typical flight for our family involves us eating food the other is allergic too, and we all sit together without incidence. The restrictions on fruit, veg and meat on a U.S. flight, means for protein, we must pack nuts for my dairy allergic daughter, and cheese for our nut allergic daughter.
My severely ‘anaphylaxis to dairy’ 15 year old daughter is regularly in the presence of dairy, because the world is surrounded by dairy. I stopped trying to make her world dairy free years ago, (or face social exclusion). My daughter comfortably went to theaters surrounded by buttered popcorn, pizza restaurants for team dinners, birthday parties with ice cream cake and more.
Change everyone else and make her world dairy free? No. We’ve learned it can’t be done. If we try, people stop inviting us. My daughter is now a mature 15 year old who’s travelled extensively, on remote outdoor excursions, plane trips by herself, school and sport trips etc. We take the upmost of precautions, but have never requested a ‘buffer zone’ for her or my ‘anaphylaxis to sesame and tree nuts’ younger daughter.
And in requesting ‘buffer zones’, has anyone thought about the ramifications if every type of allergen started having ‘buffer zones’? One could only imagine the chaos as flight attendants started announcing a long list of what couldn’t be eaten, and what rows the restrictions applied to etc. Every flight would be delayed getting off the ground managing the extensive game of musical chairs to try and create buffer zones for every allergen.
So reconsider where this ‘request for buffer zones’ will take us in the allergy world…to a place of frustration and impatience amongst fellow travelers, and decreased empathy for our cause.

That all changed earlier this month and now, after our first flight, I have to say, Air Canada has taken a very risky approach to satisfying the Canadian Transport Agency’s ruling that Air Canada require a formal policy. A very small buffer zone of 1 seat surrounding the allergic passenger does not address issues that so many of us are concerned with. A snack service will not be stopped for any allergy. A passenger two rows behind can eat the nuts or any other food without any notice or request not to. Air filtration on each aircraft is different. Although the CTA determined that the HEPA filters are sufficient to filter 99.7% of allergens, they did not recognize the different air flow on each aircraft and the risk of exposure before the air is filtered. There was also a complete overlooking of the airborne allergic risks.

We arrived safely at our destination, not because we were protected with the new buffer zone, but rather because we begged our In-Charge flight attendant to make the announcement and not serve the cashews aboard our flight. We bless his heart for understanding and hope that Air Canada can evolve this policy to reflect the real concerns of their passengers, and not stick to a minimalist approach of dealing with the situation.

Until then, WestJet seems to be the only option for our future vacations and thankfully, due to the efforts of Allergic Living and many others, we have a choice now to take our business to an airline that wants our business and is willing to apply a reasonable approach to reducing the risk of exposure and safety for all its’ passengers.

Steve
AllerDine.com