This is a question that has been brought up many times. I found this answer in a fact sheet from the University of Chicago. http://www.celiacdisease.net/Portals...t%20-%20SG.pdf

This would mean that if someone had frequent gluten oopses, intentional or accidental, they would never heal.

An example of this is the story of the woman who did not reread the label of the Corn Pops. She did not realize gluten had been added to the ingredients. She ate them every day and became very ill. http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...s&ct=clnk&cd=2

I have my own story of small amount of gluten exposure causing problems. I was having weekly symptoms of being glutened. My enterolab results more than doubled. I finally realized that I was feeding wild birds seed with gluten. I am not sure that handling it caused problems but when I poured it into the feeders the dust cloud would hit my face. I could even taste the sweetness of the seed. I hope that was the only cause of my worsening Enterolab test results - I will know next spring.
Anne