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Why would you think this is accurate? There is very little medical care, how and why would we know if they had allergies or not? Also many of the most common allergies, peanuts, strawberries are not usually eaten by the poor. If all you eat is rice you’re not going to be exposed to many allergens,
The increased incidence of allergies in the first world may be due to our clean environment. In the 3rd world, there is bacterial contamination of food and water, people often live closer to the bacteria of farm animals, and the immune system is confronted with this "dirty" environment from birth. There is a theory that our immune system, not confronted with this "dirty" environment, develops along an allergic pathway, hence food and environmental allergies.
As someone with food allergies, my mom taught me at a very young age to read the ingredients list. She even gave me a slip of paper listing the things I needed to avoid for comparison to the list. By age 15, reading the packaging ingredients list was second nature and I no longer needed that slip of paper.
I feel terrible for this family.
She thought she was eating something she’d eaten a million times before. I’m sure with new foods she did read the ingredients.
The increased incidence of allergies in the first world may be due to our clean environment. In the 3rd world, there is bacterial contamination of food and water, people often live closer to the bacteria of farm animals, and the immune system is confronted with this "dirty" environment from birth. There is a theory that our immune system, not confronted with this "dirty" environment, develops along an allergic pathway, hence food and environmental allergies.
I think it’s the opposite, I don’t think our environment is clean, and no one knows the long term effects of all the pesticides and other poisons we ingest. Also much of our food comes from these other countries.
She thought she was eating something she’d eaten a million times before. I’m sure with new foods she did read the ingredients.
I still find it hard to believe that her parents - people who clearly had purchased Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies - could have been so oblivious to the fact that there are a dozen different varieties of Chips Ahoy cookies on supermarket shelves. Did they seriously just grab the first red package they saw and just get lucky all the times before now that it was always a non-peanut butter flavor?
Or did they know that some of the flavors had peanut butter and they made sure to select the version that didn't in order to safely serve at home. But somehow they never conveyed that crucial piece of information to a 15 year old who was increasingly spending time outside of their home and eating food that they hadn't provided?
My daughter is 15 and has a shellfish allergy. Not as dangerous as a peanut allergy in the sense that there isn't shrimp in many foods that aren't, well, seafood/fish.
She knows she must have her epi-pen with her at all times. She also knows that if she experiences what she thinks might be an allergic reaction, she's to use the epi-pen and call 911 or ask someone else to call 911 first and ask questions later.
That being said: She doesn't read the labels of things that she knows she's eaten before, so I could see how something like this could happen. Example: We sometimes buy popcorn chicken at our local grocery store. They do not fry the chicken with anything containing shellfish. (She can't eat fried foods that are fried in the same oil as shrimp.) However, we always ask if we go to a different grocery store and want to purchase something like that. At one in town, they DO fry everything together so she cannot eat anything fried from that store. She is aware of that and knows to always ask which store something came from if she is at a friend's house, but you know, if the store changed their practices, it is possible that she might eat it not knowing about the change and have a reaction. That is why it's so important for her to always have her epi-pen with her!
Fifteen is not a child but it is also not an adult. Teenagers will often do what's easiest or what is less likely to draw what they think is negative attention. They don't think through all of their actions. The kid probably saw the red packaging and had a momentary lapse. "That's the one we buy."
It's a tragic accident but I don't think anyone is at fault. It's not the cookie company's fault that someone didn't read the label. I wouldn't demonize the teenager or her parents, though. I'm sure they assumed she knew which cookies she could eat and didn't even consider that she might not know. Their only mistake was in not always insisting that she carry the epi-pen, though maybe they did and she just forgot it that time.
But if they go commit murder or some other serious crime, then they are charged as an adult depending on the state, crime, and what the state wants to go with.
They are not charged, they may be charged as an adult due to the severity of the crime, because maximums are much more lenient for juveniles. In other words, the court is saying that what the kid did was so bad they want to impose a harsher sentence than allowed by juvenile guidelines.
I still find it hard to believe that her parents - people who clearly had purchased Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies - could have been so oblivious to the fact that there are a dozen different varieties of Chips Ahoy cookies on supermarket shelves. Did they seriously just grab the first red package they saw and just get lucky all the times before now that it was always a non-peanut butter flavor?
Or did they know that some of the flavors had peanut butter and they made sure to select the version that didn't in order to safely serve at home. But somehow they never conveyed that crucial piece of information to a 15 year old who was increasingly spending time outside of their home and eating food that they hadn't provided?
Her parents didn't buy them. She was at a friend's house, the package was on the table with the top flap opened so to her it looked like the same red bag her parent's bought all the time. She just reached in and took a cookie.
Her parents didn't buy them. She was at a friend's house, the package was on the table with the top flap opened so to her it looked like the same red bag her parent's bought all the time. She just reached in and took a cookie.
You missed my point.
From the article quoted in the original post
Quote:
There was an open package of Chips Ahoy cookies, the top flap of the package was pulled back and the packaging was too similar to what we had previously deemed “safe” to her. She ate one cookie of chewy Chips Ahoy thinking it was safe because of the “red” packaging, only to find out too late that there was an added ingredient…. Reese peanut butter cups/chips.
If the parents had "deemed safe" the red packaging, were they just incredibly lucky all this time that they didn't bother to look at the packages that they did buy for their own home, to make sure it was a flavor of Chewy Chips Ahoy that did not contain peanut butter? Because the red color had zero to do with whether there was peanut butter or not.
So if the parents made it clear to the 15 year old that the red packages were safe, then they were either incredibly lucky all this time or they knew some red packages did in fact have peanut butter and were careful to pick the ones that didn't, but just didn't bother to share that fact with their daughter.
The fact that she saw a red package at someone else's house and thought red = safe means that whoever was buying the cookies in her own house apparently had never discussed the fact that it wasn't the red package wasn't safe, it was the fact that it was a style that didn't have peanut butter.
I'm really not trying to demonize anyone here. It's a horrible, horrible tragedy, but I think it's even worse that it should have and could have been a easily prevented tragedy.
If the parents had "deemed safe" the red packaging, were they just incredibly lucky all this time that they didn't bother to look at the packages that they did buy for their own home, to make sure it was a flavor of Chewy Chips Ahoy that did not contain peanut butter? Because the red color had zero to do with whether there was peanut butter or not.
So if the parents made it clear to the 15 year old that the red packages were safe, then they were either incredibly lucky all this time or they knew some red packages did in fact have peanut butter and were careful to pick the ones that didn't, but just didn't bother to share that fact with their daughter.
The fact that she saw a red package at someone else's house and thought red = safe means that whoever was buying the cookies in her own house apparently had never discussed the fact that it wasn't the red package wasn't safe, it was the fact that it was a style that didn't have peanut butter.
I'm really not trying to demonize anyone here. It's a horrible, horrible tragedy, but I think it's even worse that it should have and could have been a easily prevented tragedy.
The parent's had nothing to do with it. The girl was 15, she wasn't home, and she ate a cookie from a bag that looked like the cookies they have at home. Anyone could have made the mistake.
The girl probably can't even remember the last time she had an allergic reaction. When things are okay, it is easy to drop your guard. No one stays hypervigilant and on high alert every second for their entire lives. If I see a red box of cereal with a cartoon captain on it, I'm going to assume it's Captain Crunch, and I'd have good reason to assume that. How do you know her parents kept up on every new cookie that comes out from every company??
Why is it such a big deal to just change the package to orange?
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