Dear Malia

President Obama's signing of the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act yesterday included a surprise announcement. The President revealed that his 15 year old daughter Malia has a peanut allergy. After school I told my kiddo that he had something in common with the President's daughter. His eyes got big at the news. "She has a food allergy, too?" He decided to write her a letter.

Peanut Protest Update

Yes, that's two signs, but it does seem to capture the spirit of the protests!

Here's a quick update for those of you following the news out of Edgewater, Florida, where parents have been protesting the "extreme measures" (i.e. hand washing) being taken to protect a six year old girl with a severe peanut allergy.  Tonight there will be an "Allergy Awareness Meeting" at the elementary school, which I will be attending with others from the Tampa Bay Food Allergy Support Group.

First there's bad news via Tracey Bailey on the Facebook page started to support her and her family during this difficult time.  The school has caved to some of the protesters' demands and are no longer requiring children who have been in other classrooms which are not peanut free to wash their hands upon returning to her daughter's classroom.  This is very disturbing for those of us who rely upon a public school to adhere to our children's 504 and Individual Health Plans to keep them safe.

The good news is that the school is trying to do some public education and is addressing the issue.  The latest I've heard by way of our support group is that there will be a speaker from the local health department, but that neither FAAN nor FAI has been invited.  I do not know if there will be a representative from either organization there anyway.  Hopefully everyone will have the shouting worked out their systems, or at least be hoarse enough to give reasonableness a chance to be heard!

I truly hope that some of these parents who have seen this as a zero sum game, where the needs of another child being met take away from the education of their own, will discover that the effort needed to protect one little girl is minimal, and that their own child benefits tremendously from learning to treat others with compassion and respect.

If you'd like to show your support for the Bailey family and keep up with the news out of Edgewater, you can join the Facebook page, which is now creeping up on 1000 members.  I will also post about the meeting itself in the next few days.  Keep your fingers crossed!

FDA Seeks Food Allergen Labeling Comments

The Food and Drug Administration is holding an advisory hearing on how food allergens are labeled:

FDA is developing a long-term strategy to assist manufacturers in using allergen advisory labeling that is truthful and not misleading, conveys a clear and uniform message, and adequately informs food-allergic consumers and their caregivers. To that end, FDA is soliciting comments and information to assist the agency in determining how manufacturers currently use advisory labeling, how consumers interpret different advisory labeling statements, and what wording is likely to be most effective in communicating to consumers the likelihood that an allergen may be present in a food. The agency is also interested in receiving comments about whether consumers find advisory labeling helpful for making food purchasing decisions.

You may submit electronic comments here. Let 'em have it!

Update: Here's a more direct link to the comment submission form for this hearing.

New EPA Limits Protect Industry Not Children

I wasn't going to write about politics on this blog. I really wasn't. It was going to be all about the food. This was going to be my creative outlet, combining my love of cooking and baking with a need for allergen free meals for my son and children like him.

Then I read today's news, and I decided to write about this anyway. Sometimes being a mommy is about more than today's appointment with the allergist or tonight's dinner. Sometimes being a mommy means looking at the bigger picture.

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, "[a]bout eighty percent of children with asthma have allergies." This includes my son. If a child is at risk for anaphylaxis, then compromised breathing can make an allergic reaction even more dangerous. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that they are setting a "new ozone standard at 75 parts per billion in ambient air in the United States. The previous standard was 80 parts per billion." That's less smog, which is good news for those with weakened respiratory systems, right?

Not so much. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to review its standards and adjust them to meet the recommendations of current scientific research every five years. The EPA failed to update ozone standards until forced to do so by a court-ordered settlement in 2003 from a suit brought by The American Lung Association, The Environmental Fund, and other groups. What was the resulting recommendation of the EPA's own review board? "The EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee recommended...a standard of 60 to 70 parts per billion, with the lower level suggested for children who are more vulnerable to ozone pollution."

This led to frantic efforts by lobbyists working on behalf of "manufacturers, automakers, electric utilities, grocers and cement makers," who didn't much want to pay the costs of cleaning up their acts. Their hard work paid off. Shortly before the court mandated deadline arrived, President Bush personally intervened to prevent the lower limit from being adopted, despite a unanimous 2001 Supreme Court decision, which requires limits set by the EPA to be based solely on scientific, not political or economic considerations. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson has also requested that Congress "modernize" the Clean Air Act by allowing such additional considerations to be taken into account.

What is the tangible difference between the two standards? I'll let the Environmental Defense Fund, one of the groups that sued to force the EPA into action, to explain:

By tightening the ozone standard from 0.08 ppm to 0.075, the agency estimates the new standard annually will prevent at least 820 deaths, 1,400 heart attacks, 1890 emergency room visits for asthma, and 610,000 lost school days by the year 2020.

In contrast, EPA estimates that an ozone health standard of 0.065 ppm -- the midpoint in the range of 0.060 to 0.070 ppm unanimously recommended by EPA’s independent science advisory committee -- would prevent at least 2,330 deaths, 4,000 heart attacks, 4,600 emergency room visits for asthma, and 1,300,000 lost school days in the year 2020.

By my math, that's a difference of 1510 deaths, 2600 heart attacks, 2710 emergency room visits for asthma, and 690,000 school days missed per year once the standard is fully implemented. I would prefer that my child not be one of the statistics to fall into that gaping chasm. The EPA itself, or at least the scientists who work there, mention that the cost to industry of lowering pollution will be offset in reduced healthcare expenses. (They could also save a few bucks on lobbyists.)

Although I don't have a huge readership, there are enough regulars lurking about that I'll go ahead and give you this link on how to contact your elected representatives. If giving your Congressperson a piece of your mind is a new experience, here are a few pointers to remember while expressing your opinion of the EPA's new ozone limits and the proposed gutting of the Clean Air Act:

• Be polite. You are a Concerned Citizen, not a Raving Lunatic.
• Be specific and concise.
• Make it personal. This is how the EPA's inadequate ozone limits will affect my asthmatic/allergic child. Bad air means he/she will spend more time sick due to asthma and he/she will be less likely to survive an allergic reaction. Mention that your child will miss school, you will miss work, and you and your employer will pay more for healthcare.

Now I'll get off my soapbox and go bake something.