Amy Wicker is working to strengthen allergy regulations on commercial flights.
Amy Wicker of Naperville, Illinois is afraid to fly, for one simple reason: her daughter’s allergy. Wicker’s 9-year-old daughter, Elyse, has a severe nut allergy, making air travel dangerous for the Wicker family. Elyse can suffer from an allergic reaction from not only eating the food, but also inhaling nut proteins that are in the air.
Many airlines serve peanuts as snacks to all flyers, while others serve heated nuts to first-class passengers. Airlines, for all of the regulations they have adopted over the past decade, do not have any control over whether flyers can bring nuts onboard with them. It is this inconsistency in airline policy regarding nuts that has spurred Wicker to action. She contends that having such scattered policies surrounding this food makes it inconvenient and even dangerous for those who suffer from allergies to fly.
Wicker has become an advocate for all allergy sufferers, trying to persuade airlines to create stronger regulations regarding serving nuts on a flight. She developed a website – AllergySafeTravel.com – and even made a six minute documentary about people who suffer from nut allergies, which she recently premiered to the airline industry group Airlines for America in Washington, D.C. Her presentation was well-received, but Wicker says it remains to be seen if airlines will take any further action.
Wicker has stated that her ultimate goal is not to get rid of nuts on all flights, because that is a battle she knows cannot be won. Instead, she simply wants passengers to work with the crew in creating an area of the plane where the food cannot be eaten, protecting those with allergies from accidental ingestion.
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