Has Southwest Airlines banned aspartame from the cockpit?

Jim Baker extrapolated from data available...


"Olivers" wrote in message
...
G.R. Patterson III extrapolated from data available...



Olivers wrote:

One, two.......and at what number do you want the world to stop
serving peanuts? Do you want the airlines to be barred from
serving an inexpensive and at least filling snack beloved by many?

Just how did we get from warning labels on products containing
peanuts to a worldwide ban on them?

A number of groups (the allergic and "assorted nutters") have called
for banning peanuts on US airline flights, and several airlines have
apparently
decided to go along rather than risk confrontation and bad mouthing
(or
law
suits)


TMO

You are so full of clever crap Olivers you stink. As you might guess,
my wife's former roommate did extensive research into the problem when
she found out that her child was sick all the time because of the mere
presence of peanuts in the air he breathes. Now, do you suspect that
there is a minority of 5 maybe 10 people causing the airlines to
rethink the fare they serve to their passengers, or do you think it's
a bigger problem than your infinitiesimaly small brain can comprehend?
Do you think that being contained in a metal tube that isn't
recycling the air effectively that the passengers are breathing could
be a problem for someone with an allergy? Finally, what the hell is
wrong with you that you wouldn't give up your penny ante bag of
peanuts when you know it is painful for others? Are you that full of
**** that you don't care? Or are you just too dense to understand the
situation? I know the afflicted could just stay home, but what harm
is it to you not to get a bag of..."beloved".. peanuts to chew on
while you're flying as a passenger compared to the tens of thousands
of people who suffer from peanut allergies? You love your peanuts?
What a jerk. The kid DIED from the allergy. He was beloved too, and
he wasn't a peanut.

The children allergic to peanuts are far, far, more likely to suffer a
reaction in a hundred more common venues of exposure. Any supermarket or
baseball stadium would put an allergic child at greater risk.

Yes, you silly twit, the afflicted have to stay home (or some location
similarly peanut free), because as with literally dozens of other food
stuffs (including literally dozens of fast food outlets using peanut oils
for frying), society is simply not going to ban peanut use or cultivation.

People die from allergic reactions every day. Can we or should we try to
eliminate every food stuff which might cause such a reaction? Do we take
peanut butter out of supermarkets because a child allergic to peanuts might
go into shock if someone opens a jar.

I suffer from several allewrgies, fortunately only one of them to an extent
that the reaction could be fatal. But neither I, not you, nor any sufferer
(or 10,000 sufferers or a million sufferer) are enough to remove

Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
I was hospitalized three times, suffering from near-drowning in my own
saliva, before I put two and two together and realized that it was

And you are 1 data point out of 100,000,000 or so, and you
haven't really documented beyond doubt that it was the
aspartame. This is hardly a reason to ban such a benign
substance from airline cockpits. After all, if aspartame
were such a danger, automobile crash rates would reflect
this problem, and I'm willing to bet there is **NOT*** a
single case supporting this.

Olivers wrote:
People die from allergic reactions every day. Can we or should we try
to eliminate every food stuff which might cause such a reaction? Do
we take peanut butter out of supermarkets because a child allergic to
peanuts might go into shock if someone opens a jar.

I suffer from several allewrgies, fortunately only one of them to an
extent that the reaction could be fatal. But neither I, not you, nor
any sufferer (or 10,000 sufferers or a million sufferer) are enough to
remove.

My worst immune (though not allergic) response is to wheat, rye, barley,
and oats. Though not fatal in the short-term, it easily could be in the
long-term (ingestion destroys my villi and increases risk for cancer).

The only time I object to such ingredients on a plane is when I order --
and they deliver -- a so-called gluten-free meal that isn't.

--
_Deirdre web: http://deirdre.net blog: http://deirdre.org/blog/
"Memes are a hoax! Pass it on!"

r5 wrote:
Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
I was hospitalized three times, suffering from near-drowning in my own
saliva, before I put two and two together and realized that it was

And you are 1 data point out of 100,000,000 or so, and you haven't
really documented beyond doubt that it was the aspartame. This is
hardly a reason to ban such a benign substance from airline cockpits.
After all, if aspartame were such a danger, automobile crash rates
would reflect this problem, and I'm willing to bet there is **NOT*** a
single case supporting this.

I never said it should be banned from cockpits. I simply said there were
people, including myself, who had severely negative reations but didn't
have the phenylalanine problem.

--
_Deirdre web: http://deirdre.net blog: http://deirdre.org/blog/
"Memes are a hoax! Pass it on!"

On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 00:33:01 GMT, r5
wrote:

Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
I was hospitalized three times, suffering from near-drowning in my own
saliva, before I put two and two together and realized that it was

And you are 1 data point out of 100,000,000 or so, and you
haven't really documented beyond doubt that it was the
aspartame. This is hardly a reason to ban such a benign

Ask most any GP and they'll tell you there are quite a few people who
react to aspartame, but OTOH I don't think it's a very large percent.

substance from airline cockpits. After all, if aspartame
were such a danger, automobile crash rates would reflect
this problem,

Not unless they were looking for it. It's normally one of those
things they'd never see unless they were looking for it specifically.
Driver got sick, lost control. Only if a regular pattern turned up
would they look for it.

It's a given that some percentage of accidents are ... well... not
accidents, but they are the most difficult of all to prove.

and I'm willing to bet there is **NOT*** a
single case supporting this.

Add one more, although most who are affected by it become readily
aware of it so I see no need to ban it as long as any thing containing
it is labeled. All foods and beverages containing it are so required.
The only thing I really have to worry about are prepared deserts. If
they don't know, I don't eat it. If it has a label that doesn't list
sugar I don't eat it, but I recently purchased one of those pies that
are prepared, but not baked. Sugar was on the label. My wife baked
it, I ate it and two hours later... At any rate I dug the labeled out
of the trash and although it listed sugar in the ingredients, it also
listed aspartame down near the bottom. Now I read the whole label.

Peanuts I can eat. Soybean products do not bother me, but if I drank
or ate something containing Aspartame on a flight, it would get
diverted unless we were close to the destination although it affects
me differently and I do get a warning.

When I'm doing the flying I make certain I do not eat or drink
anything containing the stuff at least two hours prior to flying and
during the flight. Of course I avoid the stuff like the plague
anyway, but I believe the figure is something like 1 out of 100,000
has some kind of reaction to it. There are those on here who should
know the correct figure. That is not to say all have the same
symptoms, or severity. Like any allergy or drug reaction, different
people seem to react differently. For me it's like a very bad case of
flu. Painful, but without the nausea.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

In article , Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
I suffer from several allewrgies, fortunately only one of them to an
extent that the reaction could be fatal. But neither I, not you, nor
any sufferer (or 10,000 sufferers or a million sufferer) are enough to
remove.

My worst immune (though not allergic) response is to wheat, rye, barley,
and oats. Though not fatal in the short-term, it easily could be in the
long-term (ingestion destroys my villi and increases risk for cancer).

Exactly. Different people suffer from different allergies.

However, if we ban any allergen which can affect some small part of the
population (say, aspartame) well we might as well ban every foodstuff
and have Government mandated no-allergen liquid food tubes with only the
regulation amount of food supplied, measured on exercise taken. It'd do
away with the obesity problem, too.

The nanny state has gone too far. Across the water in the UK we hear the
left wing whine about how the Government should do something about
obesity and mandate what foods we can eat and how much. Really.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Jim Baker wrote:

My wife's college roommate's 12 year old son was allergic to peanuts.
He
died from it. No bull. There's one.

The Knoxville News Sentinel has a columnist named Sam Venable. His son is
violently
allergic to them. That's two.

My friend Ed (ex-lodger) is also allergic to nuts.
(3)

My ex-boss is allergic to peas of all things. He's the only person I've
ever heard of having that problem.

Paul

"Paul Sengupta" wrote in message
...
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Jim Baker wrote:

My wife's college roommate's 12 year old son was allergic to peanuts.
He
died from it. No bull. There's one.

The Knoxville News Sentinel has a columnist named Sam Venable. His son
is
violently
allergic to them. That's two.

My friend Ed (ex-lodger) is also allergic to nuts.
(3)

My ex-boss is allergic to peas of all things. He's the only person I've
ever heard of having that problem.

I am allergic to fir trees, which is a heck of a thing for a Boy Scout
leader living in the Pacific Northwest. It also means we have an artificial
tree for Christmas.

On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 08:24:19 -0400, "John T" wrote:

"Shawn Hearn" wrote in message


A friend of mine who is on a bit of an anti aspartame crusade, tells
me that SWA no longer allows pilots to be served diet coke for fear
of some dire medical consequences.

It sounds like an attempt to start an urban legend. Others have come
befo

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/aspartame.asp

I don't place a lot of credibility in snopes either, but the only
thing aspertame does ot me is a bad headache and a hearty case of
stomach cramps and the ... ahem... green apple two step. Only lasts a
couple of hours.

I'd hate to cough or sneeze during a bout though.
Ever been in a dairy barn after the cows have been turned out in the
fields right after the corn was picked? Don't stand behind them and
if you hear one cough... "Duck!"

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Olivers wrote:

G.R. Patterson III extrapolated from data available...



Olivers wrote:

One, two.......and at what number do you want the world to stop
serving peanuts? Do you want the airlines to be barred from serving
an inexpensive and at least filling snack beloved by many?

Just how did we get from warning labels on products containing peanuts
to a worldwide ban on them?

A number of groups (the allergic and "assorted nutters") have called for
banning peanuts on US airline flights, and several airlines have apparently
decided to go along rather than risk confrontation and bad mouthing (or law
suits)


Peanuts are different than other food allergies as the allergen can be passed
to the sufferer via airborne particles. My sister had one kid in her class who
was so allergic she couldn't grade papers in her kitchen for fear off passing
something on. Many schools now have Peanut Butter free sections of cafeterias
to control the issue. Airplanes have terrible air that is constantly
recirculated. I'd rather have the nasty, dry pretzels than the kid next to be
stop breathing.

Margy