Off-the-charts pollen spreads allergy misery

Pollen cov­ers a statue of for­mer Geor­gia Gov. Joseph Emer­son Brown out­side the Gero­gia state capi­tol Tues­day in Atlanta. (Asso­ci­ated Press | David Goldman)

JOE EDWARDS

Asso­ci­ated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Allergy sea­son has come early and hit with a wheez­ing vengeance in parts of the South and Mid­west this year, thanks largely to an unusu­ally warm win­ter. Abun­dant pollen is caus­ing watery eyes, snif­fles and sneezing.

Doc­tors say the spring mis­ery stretches from Mis­sis­sippi to Ohio and from Geor­gia to Texas, where drought con­di­tions have exac­er­bated the prob­lem. Fore­cast­ers and aller­gists blame the unsea­son­ably warm weather, and few cold snaps, for caus­ing plants to bloom weeks ear­lier than nor­mal and release the allergy-causing particles.

In some areas, aller­gists say pollen counts this week are as high as they’ve ever recorded. A clinic at Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­sity in Nashville recorded 11,000 grains of pollen per cubic meter Tues­day, the worst in the 12 years they’ve tracked the num­ber. The Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic has mea­sured pollen since the 1980s and says this week’s counts have beaten a high mark recorded there in April 1999. Their count for Tues­day was almost 9,400. Fifteen-hundred is con­sid­ered very high.

The med­ical direc­tor of the Van­der­bilt Asthma, Sinus and Allergy Pro­gram says he’s been see­ing more patients — even while feel­ing puny himself.

“I’m kind of sniffly today,” Dr. David Haga­man said Tuesday.

The Asthma and Allergy Foun­da­tion of Amer­ica says more than 40 mil­lion Amer­i­cans have nasal aller­gies, pop­u­larly called hay fever. In severe cases, suf­fer­ers have dif­fi­culty breath­ing that can send them to the emer­gency room.

Stephanie Bax­ter was wal­loped when she returned to Gal­latin, Tenn., from a vaca­tion in Florida last week.

“We hit Ten­nessee and they started,” she said. “I have every pos­si­ble symp­tom you can have. I’m try­ing to keep my energy because I have a 3-month-old and a 3-year-old. There’s no time for rest.”

For three years, the foun­da­tion has ranked Knoxville, Tenn., as the worst city in the coun­try for aller­gies — based on pollen counts, sales of allergy med­ica­tions and the pres­ence allergy spe­cial­ists. The city has been up to 20 degrees warmer than nor­mal the past few weeks. Spring arrived pre­ma­turely — along with sales of nose spray.

“It’s bloom­ing so early,” said Sam Roberts, a mete­o­rol­o­gist with the National Weather Ser­vice in Mor­ris­town, Tenn. “Grass mow­ing has started early this year and stirred things up.”

Ranee Randby, com­mu­nity rela­tions direc­tor for the Knox County Health Depart­ment, said Knoxville’s scenic loca­tion in the Ten­nessee val­ley con­tributes to the problem.

“We’re sur­rounded by moun­tains and what­ever gets in here stays in here. It’s like a bowl,” she said. “It’s a beau­ti­ful, green part of the coun­try but pollen comes with that.”

In San Anto­nio, Texas, patients with aller­gies have increased in the past few weeks at South­west Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal. Daniel St. Armand, the emer­gency room direc­tor, doesn’t have to leave the hos­pi­tal to find some­one suffering.

“I have a friend who goes through this yearly and it affects his whole sys­tem,” he said. “He con­stantly has a runny nose and itchy skin and eyes. He’s just not himself.”

In Atlanta, Andre Osborne returned home from a long week­end to find his black Infiniti sedan caked in yel­low pollen.

“I feel ter­ri­ble,” he said. “I know it’s not as bad as it can be. But the sneez­ing, the uncon­trol­lable cough­ing, it’s start­ing to kick in.”

A cou­ple miles away, busi­ness was up at Cac­tus Car Wash as dri­vers brought in their pollen-covered cars. Yel­low water streamed into drains in its park­ing lot.

“It’s very unusual this early on,” said man­ager Jim James. “It’s get­ting cars a lot dirt­ier, which is hap­pier for us.”

Posted by AP News on Mar 21 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.