food allergy intentional

Intentional food allergy refers to the behavior of the perpetrator who deliberately conceals the ingredients of food and forces or induces others to eat allergenic foods under the premise that the perpetrator clearly knows that others have a history of specific food allergies. This behavior is by no means a "prank". Currently, there are many relevant cases in China that have been determined by judicial authorities as intentional injury or even intentional homicide (attempted), and the maximum penalty is more than ten years in prison.

I was quite sad when I came across a case at a university in Jiangsu last year. The boy's roommates all knew that he was severely allergic to mangoes, and they didn't even dare to open the package of dried mangoes in front of him. As a result, several people made a bet and said, "He is just pretending to be cowardly, what will happen if he takes one bite" and secretly mixed mango puree into his iced American style. The boy started to wheeze after taking two sips. He had a rash all over his body that could not even be covered by his collar. When he was sent to the hospital, he already had laryngeal edema. He stayed in the ICU for two days before he was out of danger. Two of the last three students who participated paid nearly 300,000 yuan to get a letter of understanding. The remaining leader had a previous conviction for deliberately putting mangoes in people's food. He was eventually sentenced to intentional injury and was sentenced to one year in prison and two years suspended.

This incident caused a quarrel on the Internet at the time, and many people felt that the sentence was harsh: "It was just a joke among classmates, and no one was actually killed. As for a criminal record?" ”There are quite a few people who hold this view, especially in primary and secondary schools. When many teachers and parents encounter this kind of thing, their first reaction is "the child is ignorant, just apologize and that's it." They don't realize the seriousness of the problem at all.

Two years ago, when I was following up in the allergy department, I met a 7-year-old boy who was severely allergic to cashew nuts. A child in his class took advantage of him to go to the toilet and sprinkled crushed cashew nuts into his milk. The child complained of sore throat within a minute of drinking and could not speak. When he was sent to the hospital, his heart rate had dropped to over 40, and it took four hours of resuscitation to save him. Later, the child's mother wanted to call the police, but the school was still arguing with her, saying, "They are all children, and they don't mean any harm. We will give you any amount of compensation you want. If we call the police, it will not be good for both children." In the end, the mother insisted on calling the police. The other parent kept a record of the incident, and the child later transferred to another school. Are you saying this is not malicious? A child's half life is almost gone. How can he get over it with just "ignorance"?

Many people's understanding of allergies is still at the stage of "the rash will be itchy for two days and it will be gone", which is really not the case. Severe food allergy is a type I hypersensitivity reaction. To put it simply, the immune system treats the originally harmless food as an invading virus and attacks it desperately. The onset is very fast, and anaphylactic shock can occur in as little as a few minutes. If there is no epinephrine pen around, it is basically a narrow escape. Data from the my country Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2022 show that there is an average of 1 food allergy patient in every 13 people in China, and about 10% of them may suffer from severe allergic reactions. There are more than 1,000 deaths due to severe food allergies every year, and nearly one-third of them are caused by others deliberately feeding them.

There are actually different opinions on how to deal with this kind of behavior in the industry. One group thinks that science should be popularized first, and the concepts of "allergy is not squeamishness" and "deliberately feeding allergic foods is illegal" are popularized. After all, many people nowadays really don't have this common sense. The last time I participated in a community science popularization activity, an auntie patted her chest and said, "Allergy means low immunity, just eat more times and it will be fine." When you told her that deliberately feeding allergic foods will lead to jail time, she still thought you were alarmist. The other group believes that it should be clarified directly from the legal level. As long as there is evidence that the perpetrator knew the other person's allergic history and still deliberately fed it, regardless of whether it caused serious consequences, it can be classified as provoking trouble or intentional harm. Since last year, there have been similar cases in Shanghai, Guangdong and other places. Even if it only causes a mild allergic reaction, you can also request public security detention and civil compensation.

I was having a dinner with friends a while ago. There was a girl at the table who said she was allergic to seafood and only ate vegetarian dishes. However, there was a man who kept urging her, "Just have a bite of shrimp. My sister used to be allergic too. Just eat more and you'll be fine." When the girl turned around to pick up vegetables, he secretly put the shrimp into her bowl. After the girl found out, she directly put the bowl in front of the man. The whole audience was embarrassed. The man was still mumbling, "Why can't you take a joke?" Later we found out that the girl had been fed salad with shrimp by her colleagues before, had been admitted to the ICU once, and had two epinephrine pens in her bag all year round. You said this kind of person, would it be useful to tell him a sense of proportion? He just thinks your life is not as important as his jokes.

In fact, having a food allergy on purpose is essentially the same as deliberately giving penicillin to someone who you know is allergic to penicillin. Don't use "I don't know" or "I'm just joking" as a shield. If you dare to take other people's lives for fun, you will have to bear the corresponding consequences. If you are really curious about how terrible allergies are, go to the hospital emergency room for a day and look at the severe allergy patients who were brought in with their faces bruised and unable to breathe. You will know that some jokes are really not allowed.