Study on Antibiotics in Food comes with Warning

People with food allergies are well accustomed to watching what they eat, but a new article warns those prone to drug allergies should pay more attention when consuming fruits or vegetables. That is because the pesticide often used to prevent the growth of bacteria, fungi and algae on produce recently triggered a dramatic allergic reaction in a ten-year-old girl. Spokesman Dr. Gailen Marshall says careful washing of fruit and vegetables makes a significant difference by removing the contamination. “That contamination can be very important for people, not so much with food allergies but rather with drug allergies such as antibiotics.” Dr. Marshall says the FDA should ban the use of this pesticide and spare families the near death experience that comes with an anaphylactic episode. “Typically speaking people are dead or better in 10 or 15 minutes. It is an acute life threatening reaction, very aggressive resuscitating therapy.” Reactions to the pesticide kick in quickly, adds Dr. Marshall. “Anaphylaxis typically occurs 5-60 minutes after first exposure to the allergen to which the patient is sensitive.” The situation is ripe for a government ban on the pesticide, concludes Dr. Marshall. “The major long term answer is going to be the FDA enforcing these regulations to ban this sort of practice that has gone on for quit awhile and has been outlawed in Europe.” The article on dangers associated with consuming fruits or vegetables by those prone to drug allergies appears in today’s Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.