UPDATE ON THE PETITION BANNING PEANUTS FROM AIRLINES

Petition Banning Peanuts From Airlines

UPDATE ON THE PETITION TO BAN PEANUTS FROM AIRLINES: The Department of Transportation site has 1,083 comments, which includes those against the proposed ban of peanuts on planes. My petition has 1,243 signatures in favor of a peanut ban. By my calculations, there are almost 4.6 million individuals in the U.S. who are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts, and the signatures on the petition represent only 0.027% of this population. I will be posting the petition in a comment on the DOT site just prior to the closing of the docket on August 9th, so they will be able to see how many people are in favor of this change, and I’m concerned that the DOT may conclude that not enough interested parties support this change.

For any readers who believe that the DOT has backed off on making this change or that progress has stalled, it has not. It’s very unfortunate that comments made by the DOT have been misunderstood, and you can click here to read an article that explains the situation.

If you haven’t yet signed the petition, please click here or on the badge above to visit the petition and complete the 3 second signing process. To go further to support this change, when you’re on the petition page, you can click on the Facebook button to post the petition on your Facebook page. It’s most effective to include a personal request that all your friends and family sign it. Finally, you can copy the link into a personal e-mail message to all your contacts. One reader sent the petition to his 230,000 person distribution list and his Facebook group list (Thank you again M.H.!) Here is the petition link: change.org/petitions/view/banning_peanuts_from_airlines

I’ve connected with some allergy advocates recently, which is wonderful. There was some concern over the use of the word “ban” in my title, and it was suggested that the word “substitute” may be more reader friendly. I explained that I named the petition this way, since these are the words the press and the DOT are using, and I want to ensure that the petition appears in searches on this issue. A watered down title will be invisible to search engines.

Once I cleared up their initial concern, they sent a newsletter to all their members encouraging them to sign the petition. I hope that the food allergy & anaphylaxis communities will work together on this one. To date, it has been wonderful individuals who have connected with me through Facebook and Twitter who have provided the most support, and I thank every one of you who has helped and those of you who will continue to help.