Are there any waivers for peanut allergies for joining the military?

2013-12-05T22:33:26-05:00

<p>My friend's daughter is attempting to become a Marine.  She has met with the Recruiter, been working on her physical fitness, and passed their testing, and has been to MEPS for their testing.  At MEPS she was advised that due to her peanut allergy, she is disqualified.  Her allergy is not the anaphylaxis type, and I have seen where Soldiers were given Epipens before.  Can one of the MEPS SMEs advise if #1 there is another route she can go, or are there waivers for this and #2 does this disqualify her from ALL services?  </p><p> </p><p>Thanks so much.</p>

Response by SFC A.M. Drake made Dec 5 at 2013 10:42 PM

2013-12-05T22:42:08-05:00

SSG Best,

Please go to AR 40-501 is what MEPS use to qualify or disqualify applicants. MEPS is the gateway for all the Armed Forces if she gets a PDQ or Permanent Disqualification then she is barred from applying again, hopefully this is not the case. One other thing, how do you know that her allergy is not the anaphylaxis type? Unless you have a note from her allergist? The soldiers that was given Epipens I gather they are in the service already and not trying to apply to get in correct? The DOD services are not going to take the risk of a health concern, when there are enough in the pool that does not have any issues. Hopes this helps

Response by SFC A.M. Drake made Dec 6 at 2013 2:14 AM

2013-12-06T02:14:39-05:00

SSG Best,<div><br></div><div>Here is what the Standards of Medical Fitness AR 40-501 says:</div><div><br></div><div>2-30 Systemic Diseases</div><div>Pg 17:</div><div><br></div><div>

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<p><span style="font-size: 10.000000pt; font-family: 'Times'; font-style: italic">j. </span><span style="font-size: 10.000000pt; font-family: 'Times'">History of anaphylaxis (995.0), including, but not limited to idiopathic and exercise-induced; anaphylaxis to
venom, including stinging insects (989.5); FOOD OR FOOD ADDITIVES (995.60–69); or to natural rubber latex (989.82),
does not meet the standard. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10.000000pt; font-family: 'Times'"><br></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10.000000pt; font-family: 'Times'">Hopefully this clears things up, you will find this information on her actual physical examination forms, the 2807-1 and/or 2808</span></p>
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Response by Cpl Glynis Sakowicz made Dec 6 at 2013 4:54 AM

2013-12-06T04:54:46-05:00

I am not sure this would work, but I had a friend who developed allergies to food. She had a series of shots, about one a week for several months, and I am not clear how long it took, but she is no longer bothered by those allergies now. You might check with an allergy clinic to see if there is anything she could do about her sensitivity to this before she gets too discouraged.

Response by SFC Rocky Gannon made Dec 6 at 2013 7:50 AM

2013-12-06T07:50:17-05:00

SSG B There are a few things that could happen in this case. Did they apply for a medical waiver from the Marine Corps? Being that she went to the MEPS and was disqualified, it is for "ALL Services" and even if she goes to another MEPS that will follow her. She could apply for another service and maybe get a medical waiver approved, I have seen "A LOT" of medical waivers approved for the Army for peanut allgerys, as it can be advoided. The MEPS will not do testing, they go by what the applicant tells them, and only what they tell them, meaning if she told the dr that she was allgeric to peanuts, that is all s/he heard, not what happen with it and s/he disqualifies the applicant. Are there any medical documents of what happen during the incident? Long and short she might be able to get in, but it want be a easy process. What MEPS did she go to?

Response by SSG Dan McIntosh made Dec 7 at 2013 7:21 PM

2013-12-07T19:21:57-05:00

As a current recruiter, she is not disqualified until, as SFC Drake stated, MEPS (or actually an doctor at HQ USAREC) disqualifies her. AR 40-501 is the regulation, but as with most regs, not current enough for every single medical issue that is known today. So with that, for the Army, lets say your friend came into my recruiting station, first she will need the medical documents from when she first became aware of this allergy up to present time (which does include a current allergy test in case she doesn't already have one) and we would submit a MED READ. Basically a MED READ is a medical request for the USAREC doctors to look at someone's medical history to determine if that person is qualified to join, we then get notification either approved or disapproved to our request, which then we notify that person of the results and go from there. Recruiters are NOT doctors which mean we DO NOT have any authority to disqualify someone with the exception of some cases, those are outlined in AR 40-501. Bottom line, best practice, send a MED READ.

Worst thing is about what I stated in the previous paragraph, is the time it takes to do all this. If we, as recruiters, spend "too" much time on any one packet, were wrong. So most recruiters instead of doing the right thing, they go for the easy thing, and tell a lead/prosepct that they are not qualified.

Response by Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen made Nov 29 at 2016 7:06 AM

2016-11-29T07:06:19-05:00

Call me cruel, but I'm so sick of hearing the woes of people with peanut allergies. Throughout their school years our kids couldn't bring homemade goodies for the class because some kids had peanut allergies. We PCS'ed to an new school district and there you could bring in goodies in, but only if they came from certain bakeries that the school district certified as peanut free. The list goes on, but the point is that at some point the world needs to continue to go on whether or not someone has allergies. This individual is old enough to be looking at joining the military, so she should have a pretty good idea of how her peanut allergy affects her. She should also know what the service requirements are regarding her allergies. Look, you must have 20/20 eyesight when entering Air Force flying training, if you don't why bother applying? Yes, if after you've passed that initial physical your eyesight changes the AF will make accommodations, but you must meet the initial requirements. Same issue here, if she can't meet the initial requirements she needs to rethink becoming a Marine.

Response by Capt Tom Brown made Jan 5 at 2018 10:44 AM

2018-01-05T10:44:36-05:00

How did this work out in the end??

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 5 at 2018 12:06 PM

2018-01-05T12:06:19-05:00

She can join the Army. They'll just advise her to lie about her condition and she's in.

Response by PO2 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 5 at 2018 10:11 PM

2018-01-05T22:11:40-05:00

All serious food allergies except for shellfish are disqualifiers