Residents can feel, not count, the pollen

When the deserts bloom, allergies loom.

Clark County's pollen monitoring program shut down last November in the face of deep budget cuts, leaving thousands of allergy sufferers playing a guessing game on how to deal with the condition.

"We have no pollen counter locally," said Dr. Victor Cohen, an allergist who has practiced in Las Vegas for two decades. "This means we have no way to determine if counts are higher, what's normal and what's elevated compared to previous years."

The monitoring program issued daily reports on local television weather broadcasts that warned residents of high pollen counts and overall air quality.

Cohen said that though commissioners probably placed a low priority on the program given revenue concerns, the information it relayed to citizens provided a valuable public service.

"It would certainly help if someone did pollen counts, so we can compare day to day and year to year. The public would know what is legitimately elevated." A private effort to restart the program is in its infancy.

Lewis Wallenmeyer, director of Clark County's Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management, said the $60,000 program ended because it was the only program not required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. "This is the kind of thing that gets cut in today's economy."

The Nevada Society of Allergists and Immunologists is working to resume monitoring. Dr. Joram Seggev, who has discussed the potential resumption with Wallenmeyer, said the pollen counter provides a vital service to the community.

"We are trying to see what we can do about (bringing it back)," said Seggev on Monday. "There is obviously an allergy problem, and when the county decided it was not going to fund the monitoring because of cuts, we decided to step up."

Seggev said his group seeks funding for the program and someone trained in pollen collection and analysis." The group hasn't met much success but remains undaunted, Seggev said. "We've talked to people who might be able to fund us, but people are not opening their wallets in this economy."

For Seggev, a pollen counter would serve to confirm what the naked eye can see. "Just look around this valley. We can say definitively that plants and trees are blooming all over this valley. What we don't see is the other end with all the suffering."

The website pollen.com reported Monday that Las Vegas' pollen count was the second worst in the nation for the day, second to Prescott, Ariz.

Wallenmeyer said the site doesn't use pollen counters but predicts pollen based on historical data and weather patterns.

Cohen said one in four Southern Nevadans has a "clinically significant" pollen allergy. "That means they are suffering. The pollen counts that were reported allowed them to make decisions about their medicines and activities."

With a waiting room full of sniffling patients at his Eastern Avenue office, Cohen's practice is entering the busy season.

"This place is nutty right now," he said. "We can barely handle the phone calls, much less the patient volume.

"Once March comes, we're either overwhelmed or super overwhelmed."

This week, the culprit is mulberry trees, which affects the lower respiratory systems of allergy sufferers.

Next week, olive pollen will be in the air and will stay there until it peaks in mid-April. Cohen said olive allergies usually affect the eyes. Local government outlawed planting both types of trees years ago, but the ban has done little to curtail pollen.

"It seems every year we think it's worse than the previous year and we try to find the explanation," Cohen said. "What's not normal?"

Cohen expected this allergy season to be bad. "We had a wet winter. We got a lot of rain in December, and there's still snow in the mountains, but we've had a lot of wind. It's really blown, and that just sends the pollen everywhere."

Pollen from cottonwood trees will hit the air at about the same time as the olives, with juniper, cypress and cedar to follow. Grass pollens will show up with the hot weather and stick around until July.

"Things will calm down until September when we get our second pollen season.

"A lot of people move to the desert thinking they're going to be in an allergy-free environment," he said. "They are in for a rude awakening because in the desert, all bets are off."

While some allergies are normally easy to avoid -- don't eat peanuts or shellfish, for example -- it is difficult to escape contact with pollen without becoming a shut-in.

The website familydoctor.org recommends showering or bathing before bedtime to wash pollen out of your hair and off your skin, avoid going outside, especially on dry, windy days, keep windows and doors shut and use air conditioning in your home and car.

Contact Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.