The government announced today that it may ban peanuts on flights. The reasoning? Some folks with severe peanut allergic reaction are ‘afraid to fly’ because of them? peril posed by peanuts on board.

This is variety of like expression you’re going to malefactor bad picture show because some people might be offended.

This was intriguing to me because of my own allergies. I’m allergic to people with poor manners, overhead bin hogs, and snotty flight attendants, but no one’s seen tantrum to prohibition those.

Seriously, though, . am allergic to certain perfume and onions. I’ve never fully figured out the trigger but some scents, and especially those on overload, can cause sneezing, itching, and . skin rash Those applied in vat-like amount can cause me to have trouble breathing. Yet, even when seated next to somebody doused in Chanel ordinal 5, I have never complained, let alone lobbied for fragrance censorship.

Onions are a more troubling job I’m deathly allergic to those. and can suffer life-threatening symptom either through consumption or, if the olfactory sensation is powerful enough, ambient inhaling. Yet no one has proposed that a passenger give up his “cheesesteak wit’” because of my vulnerabilties.

That Pb us finally to the spectre of the US government as everyone’s “Mommy,” the someone who protects you, and also William Tell you what you’re not allowed to bash Why? Not because it’s rational or even fair, but because they ‘said so.’ But the more important point is, where do we draw the line? It’s disturbing that the dot has already begun to refer to the allergy as a ‘disability’ because there are a mass of health conditions that are not generally considered ‘disabilities’ that could open the door for. There are also plenitude of reason people are afraid to fly – are we going to regulate condition to mitigate all of them? Will aeroplane be forced to fly at lower altitude for those afraid of heights? Will there be a sky patio for those afraid of enclosed places?

The transit Department has proposed to do this before, and got a big slap down from Congress, which threatened to cut information technology budget . United States Congress was presumably reacting to the huge peanut producer’s hall which is opposed to the restrictions. I’m guessing Southwest, with its “Peanuts for Fares” campaign would be a little shell-shocked too.

I, for one, enjoy that little foil wrapped bundle and don’t want to give up the privilege . The option being studied include ban the snack outright, creating ‘peanut-free’ zones, or requiring air hose to make a particular flight ‘peanut-free’ if a passenger petition it. However, none of these pick would result in a totally risk-free environment That’s because the dot can only regulate airline doings and not passenger behavior fellow travelers could still be packing a concealed arm in the form of their own carry-on sandwich and tidbits. And that’s why this proposed regulation would be useless.