Is it me or do they not understand?

I am allergic to peanuts, in any form.  The smell even makes me start wheezing, my eyes swell and my skin crawl. Physical contact or eating peanut products can kill me in as little as 20 minutes. It really limits what I do, where I go and where I eat.  If you watch or read the news, you have probably heard about the children with peanut allergies. It's not just children. There are adults with peanut allergies, too. People say it’s overkill to limit peanuts and peanut butter in schools and  workplaces for one allergic person. It’s not.  Saying that tells me that you think my life is worth less.

When people handle peanuts or peanut products and then handle something else, they contaminate it.  Subway, for instance,  uses one set of tongs, one set of baking pans for all of their cookies.  If they use them on peanut butter cookies and then touch another cookie that I happen to eat, I would have an allergic reaction as though I had taken a bite of the peanut butter cookie.  In the workplace, in public, If someone handles peanuts or peanut butter, then touches say the door knob to the ladies room and  I touch it, I could have a reaction to the peanut traces they left behind.   It’s not just the bathroom door, it’s the copier lid, it’s the pen handed to me to write something down, it’s the chair arm or table top in the conference room.   They are all potentially lethal to me.

We go to so much trouble to install bathrooms and ramps for the handicapped.  There are handicapped parking spaces .  There are so many accommodations for the disabled, but not for those who are allergic like I am. Yes, peanut allergies does fall under the American’s with Disability Act.   However, I have been and worked many places where “the needs of the many “ – being able to eat peanut butter or peanuts around me or not washing their hands afterwards – “outweighs the needs of the few.”   It’s unacceptable to discriminate against a disability such as needing a wheelchair or a speech impediment, or any one of a million other things, but perfectly fine to discriminate against those of us with peanut allergy disabilities.