Peanut allergy sufferers and their parents take note: a Johns
Hopkins Children's Center study finds that most soaps and
household cleaners will remove enough peanut allergen from hands
and dining surfaces at home and in schools to prevent an attack.
Comparing how well assorted cleaners or plain water remove Ara h
1, the most common peanut allergen, the Hopkins researchers
showed that most products performed well, although dishwashing
liquid left tiny traces of Ara h 1 on some cafeteria tables, and
alcohol-based hand sanitizer left residual allergen on half of
the hands tested. "It's possible that dish soap creates a film
over eating surfaces, making it difficult to clean underneath,"
says Children's Center pediatric allergist Robert A. Wood, M.D.,
senior author of the study. "But our results suggest that even
if a child licked the table vigorously after it had been cleaned
with dish soap, he probably still couldn't get enough allergen
to cause a reaction." Wood says the bigger concern to emerge
from the study