Food allergies soar to affect one in 10
One in 10 people, and especially children, has a food allergy with specialists saying allergies have become more severe with people suffering multiple food intolerances.
For children, the major food worries are eggs, milk and peanuts while adults are affected by fish, prawns, peanuts and other nuts.
The rise in food allergies comes after a massive increase in respiratory problems in the 1900s and 2000s and the recent Congrès francophone d’allergologie was told that serious allergies had doubled or tripled in just 10 years.
Already one in three people has an allergy of some sort and specialists say part of the problem is related to global warming and extensive planting of birch trees in the aftermath of the December 1999 storm.
Birch allergies have soared in Ile-de-France and respiratory specialist Prof Jocelyne Just said birch allergies had soared and gone beyond simple hay fever.
The pollen season has extended due to global warming so people are hit from February to August, resulting in a runny nose developing into asthma.
As fruit and nuts produce the same allergic response as birch this led to people being allergic to them as well, in particular apples, peanuts and other nuts while also being affected by atmospheric pollution and hormone disruptors in pesticides.
Desensitisation techniques have been developed but more specialists were needed and this could be helped by the start of a new four-year course in allergy studies earlier this year.
