Quebec schools could soon be equipped with EpiPens as part of new allergy guidelines

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Quebec schools could soon be instructed to keep epinephrine injectors, or EpiPens, on hand for emergency use.

The recommendation is part of school-based care guidelines currently being developed by Quebec's education and health ministries, The Canadian Press has learned.

Part of the guide will deal with distributing and administering medications, such as Epipens, in emergencies. Some schools already keep Epipens on site, but it's the legal responsibility of students with allergies to bring their own to school.

The plan echoes a petition filed in the national assembly by Sylvie D'Amours, the MNA for Mirabel, who says the responsibility should fall on elementary schools.

Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) members of the parliamentary committee responded to the petition by saying work related to the subject was already underway.

According to the Education Ministry, schools currently prevent allergic reactions mainly by forbidding certain foods.

But as the group Allergies Quebec points out, nine foods are responsible for about 90 per cent of allergic reactions, making this approach "utopian."

"It's almost impossible to exclude them," said Dominique Seigneur, communications director for the organization.

Some school service centres and school boards have also established intervention protocols to deal with cases of anaphylactic shock, but no universal protocol is applied throughout the province; Quebec is the only Canadian province without one.

NEED FOR A 'CASE MANAGER'

As it stands, each school is managing the situation as best it can, said Allergies Quebec, which has campaigned for the adoption of a standardized framework for the past 15 years.

But a lack of cohesion results in "questionable practices, such as keeping auto-injectors in the school's office rather than within the immediate reach of the allergic person, or ineffective measures such as banning certain foods and isolating allergic students during meals," reads an open letter co-signed by Allergies Quebec last March.

Allergies Quebec says the province's political parties have shown a "marked interest" in improving the situation, especially given the estimation that 75,000 school children have one more food allergies, and that roughly one severe allergic reaction out of five occurs in the school environment.

"Our case is well received, and no one is against this desire to help young people, but it's like we don't have a case holder. We can't get the leadership to move things forward. It's mysterious," said Seigneur.

In June 2018, the Parti Québécois tabled a bill for Quebec to impose a universal protocol for severe allergic reactions. The health minister at the time, Gaétan Barrette, had himself raised the idea of equipping all schools with an EpiPen.

In 2019, the then-CAQ Health Minister, Danielle McCann, opposed the imposition of a single protocol and preferred instead "a guide to good practices," reported the daily Le Soleil.

'COMMON SENSE'

Like defibrillators becoming available in public places, injectors should be available to school children, as are first aid kits, says the Regroupement des comités de parents autonomes du Québec (RCPAQ).

"It's a good idea at its core. I don't see any argument to the contrary," said Sylvain Martel, spokesperson for the group. "There are ideas that don't need to be thought about for years to make good sense."

However, Martel disagrees that offering EpiPens in schools will remove the burden on students to carry one around.

"It's a great idea to have them in schools, in case a student's expires, but we have to keep in mind that kids who really need an Epipen are going to be lugging one with them everywhere they go, whether they're walking to school, on the bus, or going to friends' houses."

Between six and eight percent of elementary school children have a food allergy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 1, 2023.