Mt Sinai study finds kids with "life-threatening peanut reactions" 'almost epidemic'

Oct 29, 2018, Daily Mail: Peanut allergies have become 'almost epidemic' as cases of the deadly reactions have tripled in children over the last two decades, warns expert https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6328295/Peanut-allergies-epidemic-warns-expert.html Life-threatening peanut reactions among children have become 'almost epidemic', an expert has warned. Dr Scott Sicherer, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at New York's Mount Sinai hospital, said the rise in cases is impossible to deny. Peanut allergies tripled from affecting one in 250 children to just one in 70 between 1997 and 2008, a study by the institute found. An obsession with cleanliness, where youngsters are not allowed to play in the dirt, is thought to have weakened their immune systems and driven the rise in allergy cases…. 'It really is almost an epidemic,' Dr Sicherer told CNBC. 'When you're living with a food allergy, it's like you're living in a landmine situation. … He added anecdotal reports from school nurses suggest two children in every classroom suffer from a peanut allergy.