Touch-Triggered Allergies

Clorox Wipes

“We are asking students wipe down and clean up after they’ve eaten [in class] in order to minimize the contamination and the contaminants that could trigger an allergic reaction,” Mizoguchi said.

Students at WHS have largely agreed that requiring all students to adhere by the Clorox wipe rule is a fair tradeoff for the potential risks it could minimize. Of 283 WHS students polled by WSPN, 75 percent judged it as a fair tradeoff. However, only 59 percent of respondents support the implementation of the rule.

Mizoguchi believes that the Clorox wipe rule will affect a large portion of the student body, as more and more students are eating and drinking in classrooms. According to the survey results, 88 percent of students have, at one point in their high school career, consumed either food or beverage in a classroom. Overall, 27 percent of the respondents identified as freshmen, who have only actually been in WHS classrooms for a week or so.

As the overall presence of food and drink increases in classrooms, Mizoguchi cites the increasing need to address the risk of contamination. She argues that there have been a few cases in recent years where life-threatening contaminants have been triggered by touch or transferred through contact.

“There are a few cases where we’re calling an ambulance because there are students having an allergic reaction,” Mizoguchi said. “I can think specifically of a time when the contaminants were on the fingers and they touched the mouth and eyes, [causing a reaction],” Mizoguchi said.

According to school nurse Amy Schoeff, there have been two cases in the past two years where allergens transferred by physical contact have caused an allergic reaction. Ostensibly, the students accidentally touched an object that had been contaminated with allergens and then ate it, thereby introducing the contaminants to the mouth and causing a reaction.

Mizoguchi is unsure of how many cases might be prevented in the future by the new Clorox wipe rule. The rule does not affect food and beverage consumption in the Commons, the area where the risk of these touch-triggered reactions is primarily perpetuated. However, she notes that there are still significant benefits to the rule.

“Classrooms are supposed to be safe environments for students who have food allergies,” Mizoguchi said. “That’s why when we start allowing food in there, we need to take precautions to eliminate or minimize contaminants.”

Sharing Food

The third rule, which prohibits students from sharing food that is not individually-wrapped and pre-packaged, has come under heavy scrutiny by students across the school. Implications of the rule bar the sharing of Dunkin’ Donuts donuts, which are a favorite among many advisories. According to the survey, only nine percent of respondents support the rule. Out of eight students who identified themselves as having touch-triggered food allergies, only one was in support.

Mizoguchi perceives advisory to be more similar to a classroom environment than the Commons in terms of food practice, and thus believes that students should be maximally protected in these types of environments.

“[The rule] makes sure that the students who are eating food that they didn’t bring can have all the knowledge that they need in order to make a decision about whether or not to eat it,” Mizoguchi said. “It’s cleaner, it’s more informative [and] it’s safer for students with food allergies… it still builds communities through food.”

Mizoguchi is unaware of whether or not students with touch-triggered food allergies have ever experienced a reaction while in advisory, but she advocates for a preemptive response to a potential problem in the future.

“We’re not going to wait for there to be a reason for us to institute this new practice in advisory,” Mizoguchi said. “We’re going to be preemptive and consistent with what we’re doing elsewhere.”