Dear all,
With apologies for cross-posting; please circulate.
History of Medicine Seminars @ the Department of History & Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
Seminars start at 5pm in the Department on Free School Lane, with tea from 4.40.
Our third seminar of Lent term will take place on Tuesday 21st February, when Matthew Smith (University of Strathclyde) will present on “A pre-peanut history of food allergy” (abstract below)
All welcome!
Abstract: Since 1990, food allergy has become synonymous with anaphylactic reactions associated with shellfish, milk, and, especially, peanut allergy. Rates of food allergy have mushroomed, contributing to changes in how food is produced, marketed, and consumed. Concerns about peanut allergy have changed what schoolchildren can have for lunch, affected how foods are processed and labelled, and led to the banning of peanut products in numerous public spaces. Food allergy is not new, but the seriousness with which it is treated is. For much of the twentieth century food allergy was a perplexing, dubious, and controversial concept that both divided and threatened allergists. I suggest this was due to: 1) the theoretical, diagnostic, and therapeutic challenges raised by food allergy; 2) the claims food allergists made about the scope and extent of their subject; and 3) the threat food allergy and food allergists posed to the scientific legitimacy of
allergy.
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Dr Vanessa Heggie
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
Cambridge
CB2 3RH
x60893
01223 760893
http://cambridge.academia.edu/VanessaHeggie
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