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On Mon, 12 Dec 1994 10:37:45 -0600 J. Murray said:

>The issue of airborne exposure to gluten should not be of concern to the
>vast majority of people with celiac disease.  The potential problem would
>likely relate to the swallowing of flour that wold have picked up by the
>mucous membranes of the nose and lower airways which is usually
>swallowed and ends up in the stomach.

My son isn't (I don't think) a celiac, but as I have posted, reacts very
strongly to gluten.  In my (ha!) spare time I bake cakes for other people,
so it is impossible to keep gluten out of our kitchen.  I have never noticed
that this is a problem for him.  My bread machine is very hard to clean and I
never make anything except GF bread in it.  I am very careful about my
counters, and my kitchen aide mixer, which does get used for both kinds of
cooking.  I've started keeping my regular flour in a large, sealed container
in my garage rather than in the pantry (where Sam is frequently rummaging.)

Recently I was watching a videotape made of my son at school.  During part
of the tape the children were having snacks. Sam was eating rice cakes,
sitting directly next to a child who was eating a chocolate covered donut. I
can't think of anything that could be closer to torture for Sam, whose favorite
food in the world would probably have to be donuts.

Although he is autistic, he is aware that eating a  "regular" donut would
likely cause him to get sick, and he is very good about his diet.  He did
ask his teacher "can I have that? is it a regular donut or special?" when the
kid set it down.  He was told he couldn't have it.  Anyway, a few minutes
later you see him get up and clean up his snack, throw away the bag etc.
The donut eater had already done the same.  Then, as SAm is passing the table
on his way to another part of the room he grabbed a large donut crumb from
the table and shot it into his mouth!!!!  It was large enough to see clearly
on tape. The teacher saw it too and made him spit it out. But it makes me
wonder how many times something like this ISN'T caught.  He knows better, but
he's only six, and he is autistic, for heavens sake.

I guess my point is that as careful as you are, there are times when you do
ingest gluten. Certainly for kids this can be a "sneak" and for adults it can
be inadvertent. But I do wonder if sometimes there is an inadverent lapse
that occurs close (in time) the ingestion of something else which gets blamed
(such as buckwheat, inhaling wheat dust, etc.)

Lisa