We need to provide factually correct information about food allergy!

1. Anaphylaxis can cause death, but this is a very rare event. 80% of anaphylaxis gets better with no treatment. 99% respond to 2-3 doses of adrenaline. Approximately 10 x more children die in a car crash than from a food allergy. More children die of asthma than anaphylaxis. We need to take food allergy seriously and treat each and every episode of anaphylaxis as a medical emergency as you cannot predict severity. However ANAPHYLAXIS DOES NOT EQUAL DEATH. If you have a severe reaction or are in doubt use your adrenaline pen and call for help. A severe reaction is where it affects breathing (coughing, wheezing, hoarse voice) or circulation (collapse, drowsy or floppy which suggests possible drop in blood pressure).

2. I dont like the term severe nut allergy or severe milk allergy. Rather with allergic reactions you cannot predict reactions and thus you have a risk of a severe reaction.

3. Aerosolised reactions to peanuts. The evidence available does not really support that this can result in significant reactions and the evidence does not really support this. Thats not to say one can guarantee this but if interested have a read of an article by Paul Turner on flying with nut and other food allergies earlier this year. Fish and shellfish on the other hand is commonly seen to cause aerosolised reaction.