Spring is in the air

Pollen-proofing

For those suffering allergies in Southern Nevada, the following steps should ease the symptoms:

This year's exceptionally warm winter and mild spring, awash with plenty of rainfall, is ensuring a bumper crop of pollen -- not good news for Southern Nevadans who suffer the sneezing, sniffling and coughing of hay fever.

This week marks the start of the hay fever season, and mulberry pollen is expected to usher it in with an irritating flurry.

"I'm making my prediction they will go ballistic," Las Vegas allergy specialist Dr. James Christensen said of the mulberry blossoms, which look like caterpillars when they hit the ground.

Gentle breezes, warm days and cool nights this week are perfect for bringing to a peak the pollen from mulberry trees, which started to nose up in Clark County Health District samples taken last week.

Monte Symmonds, who counts the pollen around the valley for the health district's Air Pollution Control Division, said this year the mulberry trees have bloomed more slowly than most years. The warmer daytime temperatures will boost the blooms.

"We're getting some pretty outrageous numbers," Symmonds said Tuesday.

From counting pollen collected on Sunday, Symmonds said the area near the Meadows Mall recorded from 2,000 to 3,000 mulberry grains packed into a 3-foot cube of air. The mulberry trees generally produce their peak pollen in mid-March.

To put that number in perspective, pollen counts from 0 to 49 are considered light. When the count jumps above 1,000 grains, however, hay fever sufferers no longer need to count -- they start sneezing.

The all-time record for mulberry pollen occurred in March 1998, when Symmonds counted 65,102 grains in an air sample taken at Griffith Elementary School near Essex Street and Alta Drive.

In January cedar and juniper trees bloomed followed by ash in late February. But mulberry pollen brings out the worst for allergy sufferers, until olive trees start producing their pollen next month.

Although the Clark County District Board of Health has recently restricted the types of mulberry and olive trees allowed in the Las Vegas Valley, older trees grow larger and produce more pollen every year.

People develop allergies as an abnormal response of the body's natural immune system. The immune system normally protects the body by identifying potentially harmful invaders such as bacteria or viruses. The immune system responds to the attackers by sending antibodies to kill them.

When the reaction is caused by other substances, such as dust or pollen, people are considered allergic.

To help cut down the misery, Christensen recommends allergic people avoid contact with the pollen. Instead of exercising outdoors in the morning, wait until afternoon when pollen levels are lighter, he recommended.

Shower before going to bed and after work and play outdoors, and close the doors and windows at home.

There are numerous over-the-counter medicines to help relieve allergy symptoms, including nondrowsy antihistamines and nasal sprays. If symptoms become severe, Christensen urges sufferers to see a doctor for stronger medicine.

As sniffling season arrives in the Las Vegas Valley, Andrew Kress, president of Pollen.com, offers a new e-mail notification service free to allergy sufferers. It's called Allergy Alert, and each morning the pollen counts are delivered by e-mail to the sufferer according to home or office ZIP code.

To receive the service, go to www.pollen.com and follow the directions for receiving Allergy Alert.

For those surfing the Internet, Your Personal Allergy Alert is available with daily pollen forecasts at [email protected]

Mary Manning covers environmental issues for the Sun. She may be reached by phone at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at: [email protected]

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