My youngest goes to a "allergy aware" school where the kids are allowed to bring any food they personally enjoy, but they are NOT allowed to share food with their friends. This rule is strictly enforced by lunch room monitors.
Both she and I share some common allergens such as certain wire-haired animals, cleaning products like 4O9 and other aerosol solutions, avocado and mango meat, cigarettes/cigars, etc. Most of our symptoms are relatively mild...for instance, she gets hives around her mouth when eating mango fruit, but does that stop her? Nope! My chemical sensitivity has literally exploded over the past year to where I have to read the ingredients on almost all cleaning products before using. I recently rented a carpet cleaner and grabbed a bottle of the liquid sold with the rental machine and ended up in the urgent care due to a horrible allergic reaction. They did a breathing treatment and I felt five gazillion times better, but now carry an inhaler in my purse in case it happens again. That scared the shit out of me!!!
In terms of my expectations of others in the work place or out in public...um, that's MY problem! Personally, I would never expect someone to accommodate me based on my food/environmental allergies. If I was allergic to garlic, then I would make sure to bring food that didn't need to be heated up or stored somewhere it could be exposed to it. If smells gave me migraines, then I would honestly need to consider working from home. Scent allergies are much more difficult to navigate than food allergies. Perfumes/colognes I understand not wanting to smell all day if they stink or give me a headache, then it becomes an HR issue. But if the smell of food makes you ill, then it's a personal problem and it's on you to handle it so the problem doesn't become everyone else's. If molecules containing peanut atoms have the potential to cause anaphylactic shock, then you ought not be flying on commercial airlines if you can help it. Otherwise, I'm sure one can locate a hazmat suit in an emergency.
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