Peanut in Household Dust Linked to Peanut Allergies, Especially for Kids With Eczema

Exposure to peanut proteins in household dust may be a trigger of peanut allergy, according to a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The study included 359 children aged 3 to 15 years taking part in the Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) study. The children were at high risk of developing a peanut allergy based on having likely milk or egg allergy or eczema.

The study found that the risk of having strong positive allergy tests to peanut increased with increasingly higher amounts of peanut found in living room dust.

"The relationship was especially strong among children with more severe atopic dermatitis, suggesting that exposure to peanut in the environment through an impaired skin barrier could be a risk," said Hugh Sampson, MD, Icahn School of Medicine, and Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York.

Scott H. Sicherer, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, noted that it is too early to make recommendations based on these results and that more research is needed.

"We need to see if early interventions, such as earlier food consumption, improving the damaged skin barrier, or reducing household exposure will counter the development of the allergy, he said.