I have been on many a flight in the past couple of years, where someone boards the plane, and informs a flight attendant that they or someone they are travelling with has a nut allergy. The reaction from the Airline Staff is usually that they can make an announcement, but can't stop anyone from eating nuts... Well that all may change in the next month on Air Canada operated flights because of a recent ruling from the Canadian Transport Agency!

So without going through the ruling in this post, I will summarize what happened. Two complaints were filed with the CTA which claimed that the claimants, because of their allergies are being discriminated against by Air Canada. In order to determine if this was the case, the CTA first had to determine if an allergy is a disability. Although they determined that all allergies do not make a person disabled, they would rule on a case by case basis whether a person with allergies could be disabled. They found that in these cases, the individuals were disabled, and have determined that Air Canada, must create a nut-free buffer zone for passengers with nut allergies.

Now here is where I am going to catch hell from many people I know, and probably a lot more that I don't. I don't agree with this ruling at all. First of all, creating a buffer zone would likely not result in a passenger coming into contact with nuts, if they really think about it. What is stopping someone with a peanut butter sandwich in row six getting up and walking to the washroom, and touching the door handle and leaving some peanut butter residue on it? Nothing. And how does this ruling stop the allergy sufferer from also touching this door handle, and coming into contact with the Peanut Butter? It doesn't. I can think of a thousand more scenarios which could effect an allergic flyer, but I won't list them all. So in the end, the CTA hasn't made the flight any safer, and the comment by one of the complainants, Dr. Sophia Huyer in The Globe and Mail agrees with my conclusion...

Ms. Huyer said she is unhappy with the ruling because it won't solve the problem. “It's not enough,” she said. “You know that in grade schools if there is a child with a nut allergy nuts are banned either from the classroom or the entire school because that's how dangerous it is.”

What I am worried about here... in a time when ridiculous security rules are put in place to make air travel "safer" but really just make air travel inconvenient, the CTA has opened a large can of worms, and every person with an allergy will begin making claims that they are being discriminated against. Where does it end... with peanut allergies, other nut allergies, perfume allergies, wheat allergies, potato allergies, shrimp allergies? I think you get my point. I also fear you are going to have issues where customers start to complain that the meals and snacks are no longer acceptable, as every known allergic ingredient has been removed from them... This is just going to create a logistical and eventually financial burden for the airlines, that they just can't handle right now!

Oh, and although other airlines are free to create the same buffer-zone, they don't "have" to, as the claims were only filed against Air Canada, so only Air Canada is ordered to make changes... Pretty silly if you ask me!

The Airlines for years have been slow to make an announcement, explaining that there is someone on board with an allergy, and even more afraid to ask you not to eat things like nuts, because they are worried about the liability it opens them up to. I think that is a valid point... If someone does experience an allergic episode on a flight, even-though they were in a buffer-zone, would the airline be more or less at fault? I'm not a lawyer, so I can only guess that common sense would say they would be, as they gave the passenger the sense that the area they were in was free of contamination. Unfortunately I don't think the CTA ruled with common sense in this issue.

The argument will be made by some, that we have nut-free schools, why not nut free planes? But I think the difference here is that in a school environment we have children who aren't fully aware of the consequences of sharing food, or cross contamination, but on a plane, it is mostly adults, who if they have an allergy should be aware of what to look out for, and take the necessary precautions, and should be aware about what their children are doing and eating on the plane. I don't think you can take the responsibility to manage the exposure out of the individuals hands, and place it in the hands of an airline. There are just too many other people on board to contend with, and the flight attendants have neither the time or the authority to police what people are or are not eating on the flight!

Perhaps some precautions need to be taken so people with allergies on flights are safer, but I don't think this is the right step!

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