ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

There is no evidence for the commonly held belief that nut allergens can be spread through aircraft ventilation systems, say allergy and aviation medicine specialists in an evidence review published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Instead, it says surface residues pose the main risk.

In a new systematic review of all the evidence relating to flying with allergies, the research team found that allergic reactions to foods are in fact 10 to 100 times less common during flights than they are ‘on the ground' - although they note that this could be due to passengers with food allergies taking more precautions when flying.

Instead, allergen residues on surfaces - such as tray tables and seat-back video screens - were found to pose the main risk.Paul Turner, clinical professor in Anaphylaxis and Allergy at Imperial College London who led the study, said: "The message is that people shouldn't be worried about what food is being transmitted in the air when they fly. We didn't find any evidence that nut particles could travel through the cabin ventilation system on airplanes and cause reactions."

However, the authors did find evidence that there is risk from passengers touching contaminated surfaces on the aircraft, and then transferring allergens to their mouths. This probably explains why some people think they do react to airborne allergens. They recommend a simple solution.

Dr Turner explained: "The one thing people must do to protect themselves is to clean their seat area. Allergenic food is really sticky, and can be found on seat surfaces, tabletops, and seat-back entertainment screens. If food-allergic people have time to clean their seat area with something like a baby wipe or antibacterial wipe, they are much less likely to have these type of reactions."