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Silence from the Control Tower at Reagan National Airport; Fireball at Miami Airport; Obama Under Fire for U.S. Military Action in Libya; U.S. Toyota Plants May Shut Down; Remembering Legendary Actress and Activist Elizabeth Taylor; Rise in Food Allergies; New Study: Parents May Not Know Children are Obese
Aired March 24, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Silence from the control tower, two planes coming in for a landing without direction. A scary situation at Reagan National. Big changes on the way because of it on this AMERICAN MORNING.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome. Glad you're with us on this Thursday. It is March 24th on this AMERICAN MORNING. You know, you guys are seasoned travelers. I get nervous when you land in the first place every time we're coming in for a landing. If I knew there were no air traffic controllers, I know that by the time you're landing, you pretty much settle it. you can land.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: This is why you don't want to be on that channel on some airlines where you're listening to the conversation because you would not want to be listening.
ROMANS: I heard an air traffic controller one time on that channel tell a pilot, "No, your other left."
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: Here's what is coming up this hour. We've got breaking news overnight. A fireball at Miami's airport, jet fuel exploding in a storage tank. We'll tell if you the fire's going to van impact on your travel plans today.
ROMANS: Also ahead, a big story this morning. Toyota plants here in the U.S. possibly shutting down because of the disaster in Japan. If you're in the market for a car find out how you can be affected by this.
CHETRY: And at the bottom of the hour, controversy this morning at a Florida elementary school about how they're handling one student's fatal peanut allergy. Now you have parents picketing outside of the school saying they don't want to have their kids to have to go through the trouble of being in a class with the girl who has this. Is it acceptable? We're going to talk about both sides of the issue coming up in 30 minutes.
VELSHI: We begin the hour with President Obama under fire from Congress for the U.S. military action in Libya. The president cut his Latin America trip short by a couple hours and he returned to the White House yesterday where he ran head on under criticism from both sides of the aisle.
Perhaps his chief critic House Speaker John Boehner wrote a letter to the president slamming him for not consulting Congress before ordering the mission. Our Ed Henry live at the White House this morning. Ed, I have an understanding that the president had consulted with leaders of both parties before announcing that military action was an option. Why all of this criticism now?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Ali, you're right. During five days in Latin America there with the president, he was being pounded by not just Republicans but Democrats as well, people in his own party who feel they were not consulted.
The White House pushback is that they had briefings, phone calls to key leaders before this action was taken. The bottom line is that people like Speaker Boehner, as you noted, he fired off a letter yesterday waiting for the president when he got back here at the White House essentially on his desk saying there may have been some kind of what leaders felt like was last minute consultation, but the questions have not really been answered.
Boehner saying, quote, "Military resources were committed to war without clearly defining for the American people, the Congress, and our troops what the troops and what the mission in Libya send what America's role is achieving that mission.
In fact the limited, sometimes contradictory case made to the American people by members of your administration has left some fundamental questions about our engagement unanswered."
White house aides are pushing back saying there are various leaders in Congress saying the president was not doing enough. Now, they're saying he did it too quickly and moved in. And people like Denis McDonough from the National Security Council saying, look, they did consult with Congress. And they keep coming back to the notion at that U.S. will hand this over to allies. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENIS MCDONOUGH, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We're not setting out with a policy of regime change here. We set out a very defined goal here which is shape the environment and enable our international partners to take over the no-fly zone. We're on the verge of doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: But even that point is now under fire because the question about whether or not the U.S. can really hand this over to allies, NATO has not come together yet on a clear strategy for the U.S. to turn it over to other partners, so even that is in some doubt. That's why you've got Republicans like Senator Richard Lugar calling for hearings in the Senate to get to the bottom of all of this. Then you have lawmaker it's in House talking about cutting off funding for the military option as well, Ali. VELSHI: Ed, along the lines of executing on a predetermined strategy, can you give some insight as to what we saw when the president walks towards the White House. We've got great video when he goes to open the door to the Oval Office. Here it comes. Here it comes. It's locked.
HENRY: Have you ever been in a situation where you go on vacation or working trip, come back to the office and somebody changed the lock? Here's a president who has been pounded for days. He comes back to the White House, maybe he can relax a bit, and instead he can't open the door. He's got this media hoard watching him people taking pictures.
He kind of played it off pretty well. He moved right on. At least there, he was showing clear leadership, undeterred, moved on right to the next door, was not afraid to open the next one and got into the Oval Office.
He was as cool as a cucumber as that one. We showed the Bush-China one.
VELSHI: You were there when President Bush --
HENRY: I was not in China when President Bush walked into that door. I think in this case the president may have been mindful of the fact that this could have been a metaphor that he had this locked door and couldn't figure it out. So he was determined to get that next door open. That's the bottom line.
VELSHI: Good to see you, Ed.
ROMANS: New video this morning of a highway rescue minutes ago near Dallas, Texas. Look at the tractor trailer. The driver was trapped in the cab for more than an hour. Firefighters used a ladder and then a harness to haul him to safety. No word on his condition. There's also a small car pinned underneath the big truck. Two people are in that car. Crews are working to get them out right now.
VELSHI: All right, to the Middle East right now. The woman killed in a bus stop bombing in Jerusalem has been identified as a British national. More than 50 other people were wounded when a bomb left in a shoulder bag exploded during rush hour yesterday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the attack and talked about retaliation. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Terrorism as the targeting of civilians are never justified. And Israel, like all nations, of course, has to respond when this occurs. The United States is committed to Israel's security, and we strongly condemn this violence and extend our deepest sympathies to all those affected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: So far, no claim of responsibility. But Israel carried out air strikes on Gaza overnight calling it a response to recent Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks.
CHETRY: To Japan now where bottled water is very hard to come by in Tokyo this morning. Government officials say new tests show radioactive iodine in the city's water level has dropped down to safe levels. They say you can give tap water to babies to drink safely.
But there were two times yesterday that it made it unsafe for parents to mix water with formula. Meantime Japanese doctors are telling pregnant and nursing mothers not to stop drinking the tap water as long as the iodine levels remain low because the risk of dehydration is more serious than the threat of low dose radiation. That's why we're seeing this run on bottled water throughout Japan.
Also, two workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are in the hospital. They stepped in radioactive water. They were laying cables in the basement of the turbine building for reactor number three. The workers were reportedly exposed to high-levels of radiation.
And Japan's food industry taking the hit because of the radiation scare. People are understandably nervous about eating the food, eating the seafood. If they were willing to do it, suppliers have a hard time getting their hands on fresh fish. Anna Coren explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For countries synonymous with world class food, the crisis in Japan threatens to cripple the industry. This 75-year-old has been working here for 55 years and has never seen anything quite like this before. "I don't know when this will end," he says. "Business is down. People don't want to buy fish because they're afraid of radiation."
But it's not just fear that's contributing to poor business. Supply is also a huge problem with entire fishing communities along Japan's northeast coast completely wiped out. "Because of the huge amount of fish that we get from the north," he says, "it's a lots will now because of the damage."
Just to give you an idea how much this crisis is hurting the seafood industry, before the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation fears this place would have been packed with buyers and tourists. Now officials say traffic is down by 17 percent. And they are concerned about the long-term impact.
This man has been selling tuna all his life. He fears it will take months, maybe even years for the fishing industry to bounce back. "Hotels and restaurants in Japan and overseas are canceling their orders," he explains. "I don't think it will recover very easily."
Agriculture has also been hard hit. Radiation contamination is affecting some of Japan's most productive farming areas. So far raw milk and at least 11 types of vegetables in the affected region have been banned from sale and shipment.
And while the government reassures people there is no immediate health hazard, the damage has already been done. For a country that's already hurting, this is a cruel blow as Japan battles to keep its people safe and restore its reputation.
Anna Coren, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, coming in for a landing and silence from the tower, an almost unbelievable situation at Reagan National just the other night. This is unbelievable. Two planes coming in, forced to land at Reagan National airport early yesterday morning without any help because the only air traffic controller on duty didn't answer when the pilots repeatedly asked for help.
The pilot of the first plane circled the airport, was forced to contact the regional air traffic control tower, found out amazingly that they're used to this kind of thing. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 1900, so you're aware, the tower is apparently not manned. We've made a few phone calls. Nobody's answering. So two airplanes went in the past 10, 15 minutes. So you can expect to go in an uncontrolled airport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a reason it's not manned?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm going to take a guess and say that the controller got locked out. I've heard of this happening before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the first time I've heard of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Fortunately, it's not very often, but, yes, it happened about a year ago. But I'm not sure that's what happened now. But anyway, there's nobody in the tower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Interesting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: We still don't know why there wasn't anybody in the tower, what exactly happened. Both planes did land safely. The American Airlines flight at 12:10 a.m. and United flight 15 minutes later. But changes are coming. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood issued a statement saying "Today I directed the FAA to replace two air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport control tower on midnight shift. It's not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical airspace. I've also asked FAA administrator Randy Babbett to study staffing levels at other airports around the country."
VELSHI: Also new this morning, a fireball fed by jet fuel burning overnight at Miami's international airport. More than 30 fire crews sent to battle the flames. Look at the flames. They say a jet fuel storage tank caught fire. They don't know how yet. The flames were brought under control a few hours ago. No one was hurt. Airport officials say the flames were away from the runways and terminals. However it could still lead to delays. Miami is a big hub and tanker trucks are being used to refuel the planes now.
And tornado sightings the talk of middle Tennessee in the Nashville area. Trees were torn from their trunks last night. Telephone poles slammed from the ground, gutters ripped from homes. Dozens of homes still don't have power. The National Weather Service is expected to survey the damage today to determine if there were indeed actual tornadoes.
CHETRY: Oh, wow, they like to make it official --
VELSHI: If I'm in Tennessee, I'm not wait, for the declaration.
CHETRY: Exactly.
(WEATHER BREAK)
VELSHI: We have some interesting video.
CHETRY: This is videotape. A man in North Carolina insisting he saw bigfoot. Yes, here it is, bigfoot, running across the street.
VELSHI: It looks like somebody in an outfit too small for him that he can't run fast enough.
ROMANS: It looks like Ali without an outfit on.
VELSHI: Ooh, ouch.
CHETRY: He claims he's drive down a road -- I'm going by your knuckles. Just off of highway 226 when he saw this, a large, upright, brown, furry thing between six and seven feet.
VELSHI: That's not me.
CHETRY: If we would have said between 5'2 and 5'7", maybe. He posted it on YouTube. So apparently, the focus didn't work. Every time people say they see bigfoot they never actually get a clear shot of bigfoot.
ROMANS: It's no mystery. It's teen Wolf.
VELSHI: I mean, a six-year-old can get a clear shot on their little BlackBerry or their iPhone. But nobody who ever sees Bigfoot can get a clear shot of big foot.
What's your take on this, Rob? What's your verdict?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, scientifically, the legend continues. And, you know, I don't want to see a clear picture of Bigfoot. I want to have that image in my head. I want to be terrified going forward.
Even the days of high definition, I want to see that fuzzy, furry man running across the street. (CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Right. He doesn't want Bigfoot waving happily.
ROMANS: And that's how we have breaking news about the Lochness monster. So, we'll bring that to you if we got the videotape.
MARCIANO: Exactly.
VELSHI: Rob, good to see you, my friend.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
VELSHI: All right. Flying the friendly skies might not be as friendly to your wallet. How you do beat the airlines and score the cheapest tickets? We are seeing more and more price increases largely fed by the increase in the price of oil. I'm going to give you some insight from the experts on the other side.
ROMANS: Is a Florida school going too far trying to protect a student with a life-threatening peanut allergy? The school by law must do so. But some parents think otherwise. We'll tell you why they've been picketing the school about a little girl who has a peanut allergy.
CHETRY: Also ahead, Elton John paying tribute to his friend and fellow activist, Elizabeth Taylor, in song.
It's 15 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. We want to dig a little deeper into a story we told you about yesterday. The airlines is making it even more expensive to fly. Well, we don't have to entirely blame them. There are some reasons for it.
But since the beginning of this year, there have been eight -- look at them, eight increase attempts on airfares. Think about it, that means airlines are bumping up the price for a ticket about every 10 days, why? Well, one reason is the growing demand tour tickets. There's been a right-sizing, if you will, of the airlines for the last few years. They fly smaller planes, fewer flights. People still like to fly.
The other reason, this is the big reason, the price of oil. It is going up. This morning, oil trading at $106 a barrel. All of this is connected both to demand for oil and, of course, the tensions in the Middle East.
So, here's the question, I travel a lot, what do you do about it? Well, there are two things you can do -- you can buy your ticket now if you know you're going to travel. And you fear, as I do, that oil and fuel prices will continue to increase.
Rick Seaney, a friend of ours who we talk to, he runs a Web site called FareCompare.com, he says this rise in airline tickets mirrors that of 2008 when fuel prices were going up. That's the last time, by the way, that oil prices were above $100 a barrel.
Other experts say hold off on buying your tickets because the airlines haven't released all of their cheapest seats for the next few months and into summer. I can't tell you which one is right. Some people are saying don't buy now, others say, if you've got a plan, buy it now. But you should know that these ticket prices have been going up. The eighth increased attempt this year.
CHETRY: Yes, it's not easy if you have to travel all the time. Ali, thanks.
Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, we're talking about a story, you and I were having a pretty heated, I'd say --
ROMANS: I would say heated discussion about it.
CHETRY: Yes, a heated discussion about this because -- I mean, it's something that people can understand. It's basically -- you know, you want the best for your kid. And your kid goes to school. Of course, you want them to learn. But at the same time, they have to learn how to get along with others.
Well, one school's effort to protect a first grade who has a life- threatening peanut allergy ended up triggering protests from parents of other students. It's gotten ugly down there.
We're going to tell you what's going on.
ROMANS: Imagine picketing, and protesting, and it's, of course, all about a first grade girl.
CHETRY: The disaster in Japan, meanwhile, could affect thousands of autoworkers here in the U.S. We're going to have details about that.
It's 19 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
We oftentimes call it the iPad of the car world, right, the Prius. But if you're in the market for some of the other Toyota models as well, it could be in short supply because of what's going on in Japan.
Carmen Wong Ulrich is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
There are already waiting lists for the Prius, right?
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it's going to get longer.
VELSHI: Right.
ULRICH: Now, the effect of Toyota's plant shutdowns in Japan, though, are now being felt here in the U.S. Toyota's 13 factories in North America have been told to prepare for possible shutdowns because of a shortage of parts from Japan. The Toyota spokesperson told CNN Money that the plant should not shut down completely but should expect interruptions.
Now, the 13 plants in the U.S., Mexico and Canada employ 25,000 workers. Now, the part shortage isn't just hitting Japanese automakers but the American big three as well -- General Motors has suspended production in Shreveport, Louisiana, due to a lack of parts from Japan.
Now, the Shreveport plant makes the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon. G.M. has also temporarily laid off workers at its Buffalo, New York facility, which makes the engine for those models.
Now, analysts say with so much competition on the auto market, prices won't go higher than the list, there are going to be tight supplies on the Toyota models like the Prius and G.M. as well.
VELSHI: This is -- and this is an important thing to note, where are the shortages most likely to be seen? If it's Priuses, are other hybrids available to people who want to buy?
ULRICH: Oh, absolutely. There's time to -- even Ford has hybrids. There are many hybrids available. But don't forget, the Prius was the first to really hit the market. It's its own brand actually, essentially.
VELSHI: As Kiran says, it's the iPad of the car market.
ULRICH: It really is. And it's very much in demand. So, there is a backlog here. It's going to continue to be. You know, Toyota was going to open a Prius plants here in the U.S. but the recession hit. So, they weren't able to do that.
Now, we're going to go to a morning market check. The Dow up 67 points. The NASDAQ up yesterday 14 points. The S&P also up 4.6. And futures all looking higher as well today.
VELSHI: All right.
ROMANS: Carmen, thank you.
ULRICH: Thank you.
VELSHI: Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING: A loss of a legend, Elizabeth Taylor was a Hollywood icon and tireless advocate for AIDS research. Alina Cho joins us for a closer look at that when we come back.
ROMANS: And battling obesity: why so many overweight moms and their kids simply aren't getting help.
VELSHI: Twenty-five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELTON JOHN, SINGER: Today is a sad day because today I lost a friend, and you lost a hero. God bless you, Elizabeth. God knows how we're going to replace you. This is for you and your beautiful memory and for all of the people you helped and saved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A very special tribute in song in a concert last night in Pittsburgh. Elton John dedicated his song "Don't Let This Time Go Down on Me" to his friend and fellow AIDS activist, Elizabeth Taylor. John told the audience that Taylor was without a doubt, one of the greatest people he'd met in his life.
CHETRY: A lot of people felt that way. Elizabeth Taylor was a Hollywood icon, of course, but some of her best work came off-screen. Nearly 30 years ago, during the AIDS epidemic, when a lot of people weren't willing to talk about it.
Alina Cho has more on that part of Elizabeth Taylor's legacy for us this morning.
Hi, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And you heard that wonderful song that tribute from Elton John. You know, I spoke to Elton John about a year ago and I said, you know, a lot of people consider you the original when it comes to AIDS activists. And then he said, "You know what? I'm not. I was inspired by Elizabeth Taylor."
And it is true, Kiran. You know, Elizabeth Taylor really was the first celebrity to talk publicly about AIDS. It was not a popular cause at the time. But after her dear friend, Rock Hudson, died of AIDS in 1985, she decided to speak up and loudly.
She cofounded amFAR, the most famous AIDS-related charity. She testified before Congress. She lobbied presidents like Ronald Reagan and helped to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for AIDS research. But perhaps more than anything else, Liz Taylor wanted people know that those suffering from HIV and AIDS should not be feared or shunned.
Just yesterday, I spoke with fashion designer Kenneth Cole, who was the current chairman of amFAR. And here's what he said about the woman who held the position before him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNETH COLE, DESIGNER: People supported Elizabeth. And she was very convincing and very compelling. And she didn't ask you to do anything she would not have done herself.
She had the courage to do this early on when others weren't. And that's invariably when you make the most impact. And, you know, you can whisper in a quiet room and people hear you. And it was very quiet in those days and she wasn't just whispering.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHO: So well put, you know, Cole said Elizabeth Taylor will be missed, but she will also be remembered, of course, and her message will live on. Taylor, if you can believe it, was on Twitter. Just last July she tweeted this. "Give. Remember always to give. That is the thing that will make you grow."
And I asked Kenneth Cole, what do you think Elizabeth Taylor's legacy will be? And you heard Elton John touch on this last night. He said, "You know, I think millions of people are alive today because of Elizabeth Taylor's tireless work. You know, we talked about this a bit earlier. They actually honored Taylor at their gala last month, just 30 days ago. And up until the night before the gala, they actually thought that Elizabeth Taylor would be there in person in New York to accept that honor.
Of course, we now know she had already been hospitalized at that point. But Kenneth Cole said it best, "Her message will live on." And boy, did she work tirelessly for this cause.
VELSHI: All over social media in the last 24 hours. Just great tributes. She seemed to have great effect on everybody.
CHO: Yes, she did.
VELSHI: Great to see you, Alina. Thank you.
CHO: You bet.
CHETRY: All right. Well, food allergy is a serious illness for a lot of kids, for some, it's a deadly illness. And right now in Florida, an elementary school is under fire for some of the steps it has taken to protect a first grader from a life threatening peanut allergy.
Jason Carroll joins us with the story. The amazing part is that they're under fire from the parents of fellow students who actually were picketing because of this.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think a lot of parents were out there. I mean, a lot of you have kids. You know, parents who have children with allergies are really going to be paying attention at this looking at what the school is going to do from this point on. You know, the school says it is required by federal law to provide accommodations for the first grader but some parents say enough is enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're trying take away all our rights.
CARROLL (voice-over): Protesters picketing outside a school in Edgewater, Florida. Their signs showing how a medical problem for one of the school students has turned into a controversy that has some parents calling for that student's removal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not attacking the child or the parents. CARROLL: At issue, rules the school put in place to protect the six- year-old girl who has a life-threatening peanut allergy. "Lunches must be left outside the room. Students must wash their hands before entering the room and after lunch." At one point, students were also required to rinse out their mouths. Parents debating whether the rules infringe on the rights of students and take time away from education.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not fair for one kid that have a set standard that the rest of the kids have to abide by.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's protecting the safety of my child. Everybody has the right to an education. So I don't see what the problem is.
CARROLL: A district administrator says the rules must be enforced because the student's allergy is considered a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
More districts could soon face a similar situation. The Centers for Disease Control says food allergies are on the rise. From 1997 to 2007, reports of food allergies increase, almost 20 percent, among children under 18 years old.
DR. SCOTT SICHERER, PROF. OF PEDIATRICS, MT. SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It's always necessary to have precautions for a young child who has a food allergy. There might be specific procedures that need to be in place to just really ensures that that child doesn't end up eating the food that they're allergic to.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, one theory as to why there has been an increase in allergies is we are living in a more sanitized society. The body isn't attacking as many germs and as a result, we are becoming more susceptible to having intolerances to certain food. As for the school in Florida, the young girl's parents would not speak to us on the matter. And administrators are meeting with those parents who are concerned about the particular rules.
You know, I know we were talking during the story it was running. I was just recently on an airplane and tried to just get some peanut M&Ms, and none of us on the flight could have, you know, any of the peanut M&Ms. They were not serving any of them simply because we were told someone on the flight had a food allergy. So a lot of businesses, schools, erring on the side of caution when it comes to this.
ROMANS: Schools have gone to such strides to make - to include all different kinds of students with different levels of disability in the classroom. And replace the word "peanut allergy" with HIV -
CHETRY: Or hemophilia.
ROMANS: Autism. Would other parents be upset that well, maybe, you know, this has to happen so that we can accommodate this child. I mean, the point is that a public schools, by law, have to accommodate children with varying degrees of disability. A peanut allergy clearly puts this child as a disadvantage. Another part of this story I think is really compelling as a parent is that this is all - you see the picketing parent, this is at its core, this is about a first grade little girl. These are parents saying we don't want this little girl with our children.
CARROLL: There's also the argument what exactly, how exactly - how are these children being inconvenienced? They're being asked to wash their hands.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: They should do it anyway.
CARROLL: They do anyway.
VELSHI: They don't seem to be massive inconveniences.
ROMANS: Swine flu (INAUDIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
CARROLL: Ali, I think you're right. I think there's an argument there that these are not great inconveniences for these children.
CHETRY: We have gluten free wafers during the Eucharist at our church for people that can't tolerate wheat. I mean - bottom line, we're going to talk to the mother of tone of the students picketing and they decided late last night that they didn't want to talk to us about it. We really wanted to find out more. We're not trying to pick on one side or the other. But coming up after the break, we're going to be speaking to a doctor that we just heard at the end of Jason's piece is one of the lead researchers on peanut allergy. He's going to be joining us to talk about the rise in food allergies and what the deal is with schools. How all of this is, you know, is going to happen as more and more, one in 70 kids has a peanut allergy.
35 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: 38 minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to "American Morning." We've been talking about the controversy surrounding a Florida school that took some extreme steps required by law, really, to protect a first grader who had a severe peanut allergy, forcing her classmates to wash their hands, rinse their mouths out three times a day. And we've seen a dramatic increase in food allergies among kids under 18.
So how can schools keep them safe? Joining us to talk more about this is Dr. Scott Sicherer. He's the professor of pediatrics at Jaffe Food Institute at Mt. Sinai Medical Center. You guys are doing a lot to try to find a way to cure this. Or at least find a way to make this easier for people who have this. Welcome. Thanks so much for being with us. This situation in the school. I just want to show you the pictures that we have, quite astounding of parents picketing and it's really is over a six-year-old girl. This is at Edgewater Public School. What they're upset about is that the routine for this little girl, they say, is taken out from their learning. From their kid's own learning. And they say that you don't have to go to these extremes. Is what the school is doing by making rinse their mouths and wash their hands, is that overkill?
SICHERER: I think we're looking at an exceptional situation here for this one school that's making so much media attention. There are hundreds and hundreds of others that are really very successfully and rationally addressing peanut allergy or other food allergies, milk allergy, egg allergy to keep children safe in the school, have them participate in everything that they should participating in.
CHETRY: OK. So my first question is, do people come to you and ask for recommendations about what to do for these deadly allergies.
SICHERER: Right.
CHETRY: I mean, we're not just talking about they break out in hives, we're talking about throat closed, anaphylaxis, could die?
SICHERER: Sure. The good news is that there are recommendations out there. There are state guidelines. There are new laws that will make national guidelines that are available. The main issue is not to have the child eat the food that they're allergic to. And so no food sharing policies are important. When the school is providing food for the child, they need to know all of the details of how to make a safe meal.
You know, if the child had a cat allergy, we need to decide, oh, a good thing to do is to have the cat to pass around and pet the cat. That would be silly. And so for a craft project, for example, you wouldn't want to use the foods that the child is allergic to in a craft project. There are short laundry list of very good recommendations that can be reasonably done to keep most children safe. Sometimes there are specific circumstances, a child may have an exceptional allergy. They may be younger. They may need extra supervision. And so there's not a cookie cutter answer to this. But there are steps that can be taken to make children safe.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: It's interesting, you said reasonable steps. So the school now says it's getting rid of the mouth washing. Because the bottom line is, if you already don't allow peanuts in the school is that a necessary step to rinse the children's mouths.
SICHERER: Right. In my own experience, I haven't had to have any schools or families go to those types of measures. Again, I don't know the specifics in this particular child situation, and there may be some issues there that I don't know about. But I think it's important for families to speak with their doctor, with their pediatrician or allergist, to find out exactly what they should be or what they shouldn't be worried about in particular circumstances at home, restaurants, schools, vacations. Because this is an issue that impacts quality of life. I mean, it's like living in a field of land mines for families that have this.
CHETRY: Right. Just full disclosure, my daughter has a peanut allergy. Not this severe. She's gone to your place as well because it's a terrifying thing.
SICHERER: Right.
CHETRY: - for parents. Sometimes, it's almost the more information you have, the more scared you get.
SICHERER: Exactly. So you really don't want to put yourself in a box either. That's why it's very important to speak with your doctor who knows the circumstances for your child to know what needs to be done to keep your child safe and participating in things the way they should.
CHETRY: And you know, Christine pointed out something that was very interesting. There are a variety of disabilities the kids have. I mean this falls under the disabilities act because she would die if she got exposed to peanut, the girl we're talking about in this. And Christine was saying there are some people who go to school with somebody who is severely disabled, who has something called Rhett's syndrome and that the teacher say that the kids who had been in the class with this girl are actually better people because of it.
I mean, is there something to be said in understanding other people's limitations and being OK with it?
SICHERER: Absolutely. And so the process here really requires education. The mistakes that we see with their reactions in schools often has to do with dropping the guard because of lack of education for getting that, "well, gee, you know, we're having a party and we're passing out some cookies. And I think that they're safe, but maybe they're not." Having the child wear a medical identification jewelry to keep that in mind. Practicing emergency plans and having written plans. So if everyone takes this on as a community, they learn about the allergy.
We just did a study showing that students with food allergies seem to be bullied at a higher rate than other children. And it's because of these differences that are not understood and so if the community takes this on as a point of education, then they can increase safety for their child but at the same time, everyone is working together for understanding this problem.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks so much. It's great to talk to you, Dr. Scott Sicherer. Always great to have you on. Thanks.
SICHERER: Thank you.
CHETRY: Guys.
ROMANS: All right. Up next, battling obesity has become a huge health problem in this country. And a new study says many parents don't even know that their children are obese. Why parents should be more aware of this?
VELSHI: The study talks about parents and children not knowing.
ROMANS: That's right.
VELSHI: Everybody misrepresents or underestimates their weight. Hey, trust me, it's March 24th, that means it's really spring. How come it's been snowing all night in the northeast? Rob's back and he's got some explaining to do after the break.
It's 44 minutes after the hour.
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ROMANS: OK. I mean, Ali, I'm not saying he's blaming Rob Marciano, but he really wants Rob Marciano to explain why he's not delivering us a better spring.
VELSHI: And as Rob knows, it doesn't really matter what he says, I'm a weather denier. I just assume it's always going to be fine. Now, for the third day I've walked out in the middle of the night in New York to some kind of precipitation that feels very wintry, Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: We're going to get your stop stories coming up in just a few minutes, including a crazy scene out of Miami at the airport. A fireball -- there you see the planes --
VELSHI: We're not kidding. Sometimes you think we exaggerate on the news. This is a fireball.
CHETRY: I know. And dozens of fire crews had to show up in the middle of the night trying to prevent disaster. Questions about whether it will affect any flights today. We'll tell you more on that.
VELSHI: Three-time Indy 500 winner and "Dancing with the Stars" champion Helio Castroneves is making a pit stop, where? Right here. We'll talk to him after this. It's 50 minutes after the hour.
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VELSHI: Sometimes we like to give you trick questions on the news. For instance, what's healthier for you? Rotisserie chicken or a hot dog?
CHETRY: Rotisserie chicken.
VELSHI: Of course rotisserie chicken. Well apparently it might just be the hot dog. According to Kansas State researchers -- and they know these things -- they just studied ready-to-eat meat products, like hot dogs, deli roast beef, ham and turkey and fully-cooked bacon, pepperoni and rotisserie chicken. CHETRY: Sounds like everything I feed my kids and husband. This is all they eat.
They were checking for HCAs, cancer-causing compounds. Hot dogs had fewer of them in rotisserie chicken. If you love chicken then you might want to reduce your HCA intake by throwing out the skin.
VELSHI: Which is exactly where all the fun in rotisserie chicken is.
CHETRY: I know. But you got to throw it out. You're right. The ready-to-eat meat with the lowest HCA levels, by the way, pepperoni. But, the other little caveat to this is that they sell nitrate-free hot dogs now. So you can get them without nitrates. OK?
VELSHI: All right.
CHETRY: So if you love hot dogs --
VELSHI: I love doing this show. I learn -- I do love hot dogs, actually.
Christine, I think we've exhausted the chicken versus hot dog controversy.
ROMANS: You could always just eat a lot of vegetables. They don't put any stuff in those.
VELSHI: And that's fun, too.
ROMANS: Yes, OK. This is a perfect segue. If you or your kids are overweight, you've probably heard you need to eat less and move more. But a new study says many parents suffer a disconnect when it comes to their children and don't know when their children are obese, something that could lead to health problems later on.
Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.
What's the issue here, Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The issue here is that parents often don't seem to know, as you said, that their child is obese, which is a big problem because you can't fix something if you don't know that it's wrong.
And so this study that was done by Columbia University researchers, what they found is that half of the moms in their study -- and they looked at hundreds of moms -- half of the moms didn't realize that their child was obese.
That's a lot. That's a lot of moms who don't know that their child has a pretty serious health problem.
ROMANS: Did the kids realize that they were obese?
COHEN: No, the kids didn't know either. Four out of five of the kids -- these were kids that were old enough, they should have known. Four out of five of the children didn't realize they were obese either. So everyone sort of -- kind of -- a lot of them are walking around in the dark.
ROMANS: So why didn't parent realize there was a problem?
COHEN: You know, part of it is that so many children are obese these days that when you look around, sure, your kid maybe looks a little chunky, but maybe his best friend is even chunkier.
ROMANS: So it's the new normal?
COHEN: Is it the new normal --
ROMANS: To carry too much weight?
COHEN: The new normal. And to be clear, these were mostly low- income and minority children where there's an even bigger problem.
ROMANS: Give us an example then. What is an obese kids? I mean, there are children who are overweight. There are kids -- you know, you put your little boy in husky jeans for a couple of years while he's sort of stretching out.
COHEN: Right.
ROMANS: What makes a child obese? What is an example of an obese child?
COHEN: Right. Let me give you -- we'll give you two examples of kids by gender and these are for sort of average height kids, because obviously it's going to change based on their height.
But if you look at a five-year-old boy of about average height, 48 pounds or more is considered obese. A 10-year-old girl of about average height, 96 pounds or more is obese.
So that's -- you know, those can give you some sort of some rough outlines.
ROMANS: How can you know if your kid is obese?
COHEN: You know -- and it is tough to know, because you know as a mom, the kids are constantly growing. Like, your kid may be chunky at one point and then six months later look fine because they had a growth spurt.
So what you can do is go to CNN.com/health and we have an article all about this study and in there is a link to a CDC web site. It's a great tool. You put in your child's height, you put in their gender, you put in their age and they'll tell you.
ROMANS: You mentioned that this is a study of mostly low-income kids. The real risk and the trouble for parents is that sometimes the fastest, cheapest food is the worst food for your kids.
So here you are working hard, trying to do the right thing and make sure your kid is getting three square meals a day, and you're feeding him a lot of those things we were talking about in the earlier story -- processed meats, processed foods, which carry a lot of weight.
COHEN: Right. And it's just awful that in these neighborhoods produce is often more expensive than in wealthy neighborhoods, which makes no sense whatsoever. But when you're faced with a choice, when you don't have a lot of money and you can buy cheap fast-food or expensive produce, often you're going to choose the cheap stuff.
ROMANS: The bottom line really is get them moving more. Get your kids moving more and feed them things that are better for them and a more variety of things, I guess.
COHEN: And move with them. In this study a lot of the moms were obese, too, and they didn't realize that they were obese, as mothers.
ROMANS: The mothers didn't realize that they were obese, as well?
COHEN: Exactly, exactly.
ROMANS: Oh, and that's a cycle that's hard to break.
COHEN: Right. That's hard to break and your kid is more likely to move if you move with them.
ROMANS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, great advice. Thank you.
COHEN: OK, thanks.
ROMANS: Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds.
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