It is a safe bet that when Congress passed the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990 it didn't have peanut butter sandwiches in mind. But ill-thought-out legislation can have unexpected and ridiculous consequences, critics point out. So some schools are outlawing the sandwiches to protect anyone who may have a peanut allergy.

• Growing numbers of public and private schools across the country are equating peanut butter with asbestos and lead -- and banning it in school cafeterias, declaring peanut-free zones or setting up committees to decide what to do.

• School administrators are fearful of being sued under the ADA or accused of discrimination against children disabled by a peanut allergy.

• The activist group Food Allergy Network is encouraging parents to raise alarms against the cheap, nutritious, popular and traditional spread.

• The Centers for Disease Control report only 88 deaths among all Americans from food allergies, including peanuts, in the course of 17 years -- with only five child deaths from all food allergies reported in 1995.

One New York school warns parents that even M&M candies might be contaminated by machinery used to make peanut candies.

In a related development, the U.S. Department of Transportation several weeks ago ordered airlines to set up peanut-free zones on their flights.