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Indybay Feature

Allergies

by U.N. Owen
Allergies and what I'm doing about them
I have two petitions just created today which I hope will help those with allergies because, I know I am not the only one allergic to food dyes and aloe. One petition is to get food dye out of food, medications and other products. The second petition is to make it illegal to label a product "hypo-allergenic or "for sensative skin" if the product contains aloe. Read below to find out why I created these petitions and how you can help.

I have allergies. I've had them since I was a child. Some foods gave me headaches and some gave me skin rashes but little by little I was able to find out which foods and/or products I needed to avoid. Until last April that is.

After years of clear skin, I suddenly found myself covered from wrists to elbows with a horrible itchy rash. Also on one leg. In the past, I would sometimes have a small rash that would go away quickly with a little calamine lotion. Other times the rash would only get worse no matter what I tried so, I had to resort to steroids in the form of prednisone tablets. It usually took a week for the pills to clear up the rash completely but, clear up it did.

This time, however, was different. The rash would clear up just so far and then flare up again. I went through four courses of prednisone to no avail. Then several things happened.

First of all, I already knew I had a problem with food dyes but my blood pressure pills were small so, even tho' they had yellow dye in them, it never bothered me but now, instead of just the HCTZ for blood pressure, I was also taking vitamin pill with yellow dye so perhaps that was too much.

Meanwhile, instead of taking a full shower one day, I took a wet wipe and cleaned under my arms. Almost immediately a rash broke out where I had used the wipe. This was weird because I have used wet wipes in the bathroom for years with no problem. I checked the label and discovered that I had accidentally bought wipes with aloe in them. Aloe is one of the things I'm allergic to. The package was labeled "for sensitive skin" so I took their word for it. Very careless of me.

During this time another weird thing happened. Even though anti-itch creams (Benedryl and cortisone)are supposed to help, they made my itch worse so I haven't used them for a long time. My doctor suggested I try them again since, as she said, not all of them have the same "fillers" and we thought that the fillers might be the problem so, maybe I could find one that would work. Off to the pharmacy I went, only to find that some, but not all of these creams, had aloe in them. Why had I not noticed this before? Because when I was younger, I didn't know I was allergic to aloe so I didn't bother reading the labels and I took it for granted that when the label said "Cortisone" or "Benedryl", that's all it was. It didn't occur to me that now-a-days, it's put in everything.

But this time, a couple of brands proudly had "with aloe" in bold print on the front of the package to attract buyers who swear by the stuff so I couldn't miss it.

Frustrated I thought about contacting the companies that made these products but thought they would not listen because aloe and food dye apparently make them lots of money. That's when I remembered that President Obama had made it possible for anyone with serious concerns to petition the white house and so my 2 petitions were born. The links are below. It takes 150 signatures to "publish" the petitions before others could see them. After it's published, a petition needs 100,000 signatures for the White House to read them and respond.

I suppose the first 150 signatures to get it open to the public under "open petitions" is to weed out unimportant or frivelous petitions so it's important to get those first 150 signature ASAP. Then we only have 30 days to get it up to 100,000 signatures.

You can help by first signing both petitions and then spreading the word to your friends, family and through social media. Here are the links to my petitions. We have only 30 days to get 100,000 signature so please do not delay.

Petition #1

MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO LABEL PRODUCTS "HYPOALLERGENIC" OR "FOR SENSITIVE SKIN" IF THEY CONTAIN ALOE

http://wh.gov/l5hUh

Petition #2

BAN FOOD DYES FROM FOOD, MEDICINE AND OTHER PRODUCTS

http://wh.gov/l5Lir

Thanks,

U.N. Owen
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