Reuters: Nut allergies may be on the rise in children

Schools may have a good reason for banning nuts from the classroom and canteen with a U.S. study finding the number of children allergic to peanuts and tree-nuts may be rising. Researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York found that between one and two per cent of children in the United States may have allergies to peanuts or tree nuts, with rates seemingly tripling since 1997. A similar study in Canada by McGill University in Montreal came up with similar rates of allergies but had no previous data to see if the numbers were on the rise.