Monday, March 21, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SPRING FEVER: Brought to Their Sneezes

Allergy season in Las Vegas figures to be long, miserable

Illustration by Anton.

Ask family-medicine physician Dr. Gregory Sholeff what kind of allergy season this is shaping up to be, and his answer is about as simple as it gets:

"Bad."

If you don't know why, take a look around.

"Look at the road," said Dr. Jim Christensen, an allergist and asthma specialist and member of the Clark County Board of Health.. "Look at my car. You see the yellow all over the road. That's pine pollen. It wasn't this yellow last year."

All the rain we've had this winter has been great for the plants and even had a small effect on the drought that continues to plague the Las Vegas Valley, but it presents plenty of problems for allergy sufferers.

"It's bad because of the weather we've had," said Sholeff, who's in private practice and on staff at MountainView Hospital. "Heavy water followed by warm temperatures has really exacerbated things. People who have previously not suffered from allergies are coming into the office suffering from allergy symptoms. People who have current allergies or asthma are particularly suffering this year."

Christensen said symptoms can be triggered by, among other things, a number of trees commonly found in the valley -- including mulberry, new plantings of which were banned some time ago because of their effect on air quality in the area.

Somewhat ironically, Monte Symmonds, a senior monitoring technician with Clark County Air Quality Division, said he's not currently seeing exceptional mulberry-pollen counts.

"We're reaching the peak pollen season for mulberry right now," Symmonds said. "It's a little early this year, but that's typical for a mild winter and the amount of rain we've had so far. I haven't seen anything break any records yet. It's still a little early to tell."

He said that the highest number of mulberry pollen recorded in any year was 64,000 grains per cubic meter, in 1998.

Pollen is measured by collecting it on rotor-rods, clear plastic rods that are coated with silicone grease.

"They spin around and collect the pollen that floats in the air," Symmonds said."Then we bring them back to the lab, do a physical count of the pollen grains that are on the pollen rod. It takes quite a bit of time when the pollen levels are really high. We don't look at the entire rod, but we look at enough of it so we can determine the number."

"The highest reading we've had so far this year is 29,000," he said. "That's specifically for mulberry."

But Christensen said counts of mulberry pollen don't tell the whole story. For instance, he said, pine pollen "is not what they're counting. That's a real heavy pollen, so it doesn't show up on their pollen counts.

"It only sort of makes sense that when you have a lot more water and a mild winter, that things are going to grow more. The fact that they're not seeing it doesn't necessarily mean it's not happening. All that they count is what impacts on their rods."

But pine pollen isn't generally a major offender, at least in terms of allergies.

"Pine pollen is really large, and so usually it doesn't really get up into the nose," Christensen said. "That's why they don't count it. When you look at it under the microscope, it has big air bladders; it sort of looks like Mickey Mouse. That's to help it be carried by the wind.

"There are people who are allergic to it, and they're having problems now. Just because they aren't measuring it doesn't mean it's not there." And, "what you're not seeing, but what's mixed in with it, is mulberry and ash."

Symmonds said cedar pollen also is in the air now.

"We'll see olive; that'll be next month," he said. Also, "I expect to see some elevated weed counts from all the rain we've had," including the ambrosia family, which includes ragweed, and cheno-ams family, which includes pigweed and salt bush.

"I expect next month we'll see some elevated weed counts," he said. "I would say if we don't have any more rain, it'll be a moderate to high year for those."

The burgeoning wildflowers we're enjoying this year are more benign, Symmonds said.

"Typically, a flowering plant isn't going to be an airborne pollen, it's going to rely on insects to distribute the pollen," he said.

For allergy sufferers, the cause doesn't matter.

"I would say that it's almost irrelevant which particular pollen they're suffering from," Sholeff said. "The bottom line is we will see in particular asthmatics and people who have previously suffered from allergies to have more symptoms this year and probably more prolonged symptoms. The season should be a little longer; I would expect that. And people who have not had problems in the past will have problems; it's as simple as that. I think asthmatics, in particular, are those we have concerns about. It's important to know you have either of these diagnoses.

"In addition, we'll find previously undiagnosed asthmatics this year. This will sort of tip them over the edge."

Sholeff said his advice is to "seek the care of their physicians and be aware of the signs and symptoms of allergies."

In milder cases, he said, "most people can treat themselves with over-the-counter Benadryl if they can tolerate the side-effects, which are sedation. But most people will respond to prescription pharmaceuticals, like Allegra, Zyrtec, Claritin. Sometimes we have to ramp up the treatment with combination of medications."

"Close your doors and windows," Christensen said. "Change your filters. That's going to get about 95 percent of it."

If you typically exercise in the morning, change your routine and exercise in the afternoon, because the highest pollen counts are in the morning, Christensen said. When you come in from outdoors, "take a shower, change your clothes. Don't bring all the pollen in and spread it around your house."

And pray for rain. "Rain washes away the pollen," said Linn Mills, a horticulturist at the Gardens at the Springs Preserve and Review-Journal columnist.

"About five years ago, it came down right in the middle of the pollen season for mulberries and it shut 'em right down," Mills said.

Christensen said pollen season normally starts in about February and goes until the temperature reaches about 104.

"And then things pretty much shut down," he said. "And once the temperature cools off -- August, September -- then we go until it's really cold, so until about November. We have almost a year-round growing season."

And pollen isn't the only problem for allergy sufferers.

"What bothers me is we're going to have a lot of mold," Mills said. "All these wet crevices just mold, mold, mold."

Mills said information on "sneezeless landscapes" is available from Nevada Cooperative Extension by calling 257-5555.

Because, while this is a particularly tough year, allergy-wise, the problem is not going to go away.

"They're planting a lot of Texas privet," Christensen said. "That will be pollinating in three to four weeks. They banned mulberry because they're heavy pollinators. If you have a low-pollinating tree and you have enough of them, what do you get?"

"The old adage, `Move to the desert for allergies and asthma,' is not necessarily true," Sholeff said. "Las Vegas has an interesting combination of dry weather, it's a windy valley, a lot of construction, and if you drive around it's beautiful. They plant these beautiful plants and they're not indigenous to the area. That's a potentially troublesome combination.

"If they left the desert alone -- did nothing to it -- we wouldn't have these problems."