Answer the Phone!...Hire You?
Posted on 05/12/2005 5:21:32 PM PDT by hadit2here
Faced with a lawsuit, the Bellingham Board of Library Trustees last night adopted a new policy banning latex balloons and gloves in the building.
Patrick Callahan, whose 9-year-old son Andrew has severe latex allergy, said he is relieved. He has been fighting for three months to get the facility latex-free.
"As long as we are in agreement, I will officially drop the case," he told trustees after a meeting in the library last night.
Trouble brewed in February after a children's program in the library left balloon sculptures displayed in the building.
Callahan said he asked library officials to remove the balloons and implement a no-latex policy. He had made the same request to the South Elementary School, he said, which complied immediately after his son enrolled.
"My son has a life-threatening latex allergy," he said. "This is a part of our lives."
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Web site, latex allergy symptoms can range from itchy skin to trouble breathing and was first recognized in the 1970s. However, there are no OSHA guidelines for latex exposure.
While his son could not go to the circus and had to recently leave a bowling alley where families turned up with balloons, as a resident for 12 years and a taxpayer, Callahan said a public library is something to which his son should have access.
"When they refused to institute a policy, we recognized it as discrimination right away," he said, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act, which covers public buildings.
His protest convinced the Massachusetts Office of Disabilities and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to file a complaint against the library and a suit with the attorney general's office.
See link for the rest of this idiocy...
Now what if someone is allergic to paper?
Oh, jeez... just thought of another: Latex paint.
This kid is a goner.
That boy's first sexual experience will definitely be something he'll remember for the rest of his life.
No gloves in the first aid kit, I suppose.
I grew up on a farm with the chickens that I was allergic to. I learned to stay away from them when I was 4 or 5 years old.
This kid is learning to be a perpetual victim. If he eats too much candy and becomes obese, he'll use the ADA to ban candy stores and vending machines.
Gosh, we go to the library twice a week, and I never noticed latex. Who'da thunkit?
If it's an airborne thing, what about latex paints? Gotta repaint the school? With what? Lead-based enamels?
"If it's an airborne thing, what about latex paints? "
Excellant point, which leads me to believe it is not an airborne condition, which further leads me to believe the parents need to back off
I looked really quickly at a website about latex allergies and apparently there is a problem with "latex dust" from products, so airborne latex may be a problem for the kid. That said, should the library have to sterilize itself or should the kid, on the probably rare times he goes to the library, wear a dust-filtering mask? The website said the extreme danger was anaphylactic shock, which is serious and potentially fatal. But can't an adult with a kit for shock accompany the kid? That is how adults handle their allergies. The question is, who should accommodate? The kid and his family or the world? Sounds like the world surrendered.
Our school is now latex-free. It was explained to us that the existance of balloons isn't the problem. But, if one pops (which one invariably does), latex is spewn into the air and can be breathed by the child.
It's all part of the no-Christmas, no-Birthday cupcakes PC crowd. Last year they got rid of peanut butter in the cafeteria! Imagine that. They replaced it with soybeans that tasted like garbage. Nobody ate them, the parents complained, and we have peanut butter back.
I know it's challenging to live in a world where everyday items can cause serious health allergies, but it's not right to ban peanut butter from the school cafeteria. Since we can't have birthday parties any more, I guess the balloon issue is dead anyway.
"Our school is now latex-free. It was explained to us that the existance of balloons isn't the problem. But, if one pops (which one invariably does), latex is spewn into the air and can be breathed by the child
Thanks for the info, in that case I would say it's not too much to ask for a school that has one of these latex allergic kids to not allow balloons. Balloons don't add that much to the educational process IMO, not balaced against a kids life
latex-free gloves are available on our ambulances......
Ooooh, all those people with dust allergies have just cause to close down every library on the planet!
Does this mean that my grandmother has to stop accessing those latex fetish porn sites on her neighborhood library's internet terminals?
Severe reactions to allergins can cause anaphylactic shock and death. I have many allergies as well, but never had anything that serious. Some children DO have this type of reaction to peanut butter or latex. It is rare, but it happens.
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