2026-09-08 from ctvnews.ca

Food Allergy Canada says although other provincial education ministries have policies in place to prepare for and deal with serious allergic reactions, Alberta is the only one that legislates all schools to stock epinephrine devices that aren’t designated for a particular student.

The advocacy group is calling for all provinces to put similar legislation in place, rather than leaving it up to individual schools and school boards to take that initiative.

“Stock epinephrine, the way to think about that, is it’s like a defibrillator. It’s there for emergencies in an individual where you didn’t actually expect that to happen,” said Jennifer Gerdts, executive director of Food Allergy Canada.

Data from the U.S. suggests that 25 per cent of anaphylaxis cases that happen at school are among students who didn’t have a known history of severe allergy, Gerdts said — and there’s no reason to believe that prevalence would be any different in Canada.

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