A doctor cracked open an airplane emergency kit and found a sticker saying there was no epinephrine inside. Lianne Mandelbaum, president of No Nut Traveler and airline correspondent for Allergic Living, has spent a decade collecting accounts like it. This episode is based on her article “Epinephrine on airplanes should not depend on the airline,” published on KevinMD. You will hear what a proposed federal rule would change, replacing the required medication list with a flexible one and stripping the exemption paperwork that was the only record of which airlines carried nothing. She explains why antihistamines do not belong under an anaphylaxis heading, why one auto-injector is not enough when two passengers react to the same meal, and why nobody knows how often it happens. You will also hear how a food label can look complete, satisfy federal rules, and still omit the allergen. Press play to hear what she is asking people to send the agency before the comment window closes, and the eight cents per at-risk passenger she says the fix would cost.
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