The U.S. Health-Care System Found a Way to Make Peanuts Cost $4,200
Peanuts are a uniquely dangerous legume. A small fragment of one can kill an allergic person. Even if that person is resuscitated, it’s possible to have permanent brain damage. These severe allergic reactions are relatively rare but difficult to predict. One time, you accidentally eat a bit of peanut and get a little itchy; the next time, your airways close up and someone has to jam a needle full of adrenaline into your leg just so you can take a breath.
About four peanut-allergic children die every year in the United States from a reaction to peanut. Those odds are little reassurance for the millions of kids and parents who live in fear of the worst possible case. As a result, peanuts are no longer welcome in many school cafeterias. Some advocates have proposed outright banning peanuts in public places. Bringing peanuts to a child’s birthday party in Brooklyn ensures that you are never invited to anything again.
Kids’ lack of exposure to peanuts, however, seems to have an unintended consequence: more peanut allergies. In the United States, the latest estimates find that 2 to 5 percent of American kids have a peanut allergy. The number of visits to emergency rooms due to anaphylactic from 2008 to 2012. If your immune system does not learn to tolerate peanuts, it’s more likely to react violently when it first sees them. Recent guidelines have recommended that parents feed kids peanuts at a young age.
