Majority Support Banning Common Allergen Foods in Public -- Do You?

A recent NPR-Thomson Reuters Health Poll of 3,000 adults reported 59 percent of them would be fine with having foods that are common allergens banned from public places as a safety measure.

But, as NPR reports, what constitutes a food allergy can be hard to identify and quantify in a population:

"Food allergy has no universally accepted definition," according to a review of the medical literature that was published last year in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. That has complicated the task of coming up with precise figures on of the prevalence of food allergies.

Some schools and other public places have already banned items like peanut butter. After considering  to ban peanuts on planes in 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation decided in 2011 that it was unenforceable and abandoned the topic for now. Although, United and AirTran airlines decided not to carry snack nuts on board.

Though peanuts and other nut allergies are the most publicized because they have the most severe reactions, 9 percent of those surveyed had peanut allergies, compared to more than one-third with a dairy allergy and 19 percent with a fruit allergy.

The survey also asked if people felt food allergy fears were overblown: 51.5 percent said no.

What do you think?