Allergies (not mine, but an interesting article)

I read an interesting article in the New York Times today about putting emergency EpiPens in schools just like AEDs and First Aid Kits. The article brought up a few realities that normally would make me shake my head - lobbying, for example. The company that markets the EpiPen, Mylan, and the makers, Pfizer, lobbied to get a law passed requiring schools to carry emergency epinepherine and allowing nurses to use it even without a prescription for the child in life-threatening situations. I understand the huge profits inherent in requiring every school to carry EpiPens, but no child should die because of an allergic reaction.

Increases in allergies fueled the push for readily available epinepherine, a situation that raises more red flags in my mind. I wonder why allergies are more common. Are we not exposed to enough bacteria? Is our diet resulting in decreased diversity of organisms in our gut that makes it difficult to process certain foods? Is it the way we prepare our food? Do parents wait too long to introduce allergens into a child's diet? Is it just an increase in awareness and reporting? I do not know the answers, but it is an intriguing issue that makes me wish, for a moment, that I had continued on the science career track. Resolving the allergy question is not all test tubes and needles, though. Globalization of food and culture has undoubtedly affected our diets, and studies of different groups based on ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status and even religion worldwide may reveal valuable insights on the development and prevalence of allergies.

Requiring emergency epinephrine seems like a good idea, and it makes me stop to think about big business. I am not generally a fan of lobbying and huge corporations, but put to the right tasks, their power is a big bonus. Lobbying often seems like a case of the squeaky wheel getting the oil, and the squeakiest are those with the most money to throw around. That is not to say that all issues lobbyists fight for are superfluous or purely catering to big business interests, or even that the two go hand in hand. Lobbying for EpiPens, to take this example, will clearly be a boon for Mylan and Pfizer if it takes hold across the nation, even as competitors arise. It will also save lives. I cannot argue against safer schools and healthier kids. Personal gain is satisfying, but helping others is much more so. I can hope that Pfizer will donate products to needy schools and that schools will provide training and increase awareness as a matter of course. I can hope that big corporations will use their power and research capacity for good rather than for profit, and so much the better if the two coincide - perhaps it will be an incentive to change the world.