i was watching the nightly news with Brian Williams and they brought up a recent study done on food allergies in children age 18 and under. the previous estimate the US gov't gave for food allergies in the population was only 4% however the study revealed that in this new generation the proportion is approaching 8%.
some may question the government's previous estimate, however i'm more apt to believe that the observed difference is a result of a sampling distribution that resulted in a higher average age for their study. this means that our children are more prone to food allergies than we are.
additionally the recent study showed that children not only have more food allergies but more severe allergies than we do, with 1/3 of those affected showing severe reactions to their allergens.
what could be causing this dramatic increase in allergy severity and prominence in the population?