It does indeed tell you it was a food allergy if you 'read between the lines' One of the online articles mentioned that he complained of severe itching and that his girlfriend spent most of the night scratching his back. Even the most basic of EMT's (of which I R 1) would recognize that as anaphylaxis. The technical name is "uticaria" which we call "hives". Food allergies can indeed have a delayed onset and typically don't occur immediately upon touching the food except in extreme cases. The histamine response is not necessarily immediate. My point exactly is that we don't know that it was the chiles. It said a 'mixed chile sauce' so we don't know what else was included in it. The press just seized upon the most sensational item and put it out there. If you're eating something prepared by someone else, you might not know you have an allergy to it until you try it. Chiles are in the Solanaccea (sp) family (like Nightshade) and there are folks who have severe allergies to that family. If it does indeed turn out to be the chiles, it wasn't the heat that did it. Having an allergy to chiles, he would have been just as dead eating a bell pepper but it wouldn't have been as sensational a headline. The headline could just have accurately as read "Man dies after girlfriend scratches his back". It's a shame for several reasons, not the least of which this is very easily treated when identified early. -Jim C http://www.StepUpForCharity.org Mild to Wild(R)