Thursday, March 29, 2007
High pollen count this year is nothing to sneeze at
ANNE GEGGIS
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
STAFF WRITER
If that yellow haze has you seeing a red nose and watering eyes, you are not alone.
A record blanket of pollen is coating the Southeast. Atlanta’s pollen count was at 5,499 particles per cubic meter of air Monday.
Volusia County’s pollen was “very high” Wednesday, according to meteorologists. And allergist Michael Diamond was busier than usual at his Daytona Beach office. He confirmed that the spring allergy season is as bad as it gets — and answered a few questions:
Is it really worse this year?
“Every year at this time, it’s a bad time. And every year seems worse than the last. One of the problems we have here is that we have a lot of trees. . . . If you’re allergic to oak pollen and not bayberry pollen, it’s not as bad as if you are allergic to both.”
What’s making us so miserable?
“Oak pollen. We see enormous numbers of oak pollen.”
What do you recommend?
“If you must go outside, go outside in the early morning. About 10 a.m. the pollen starts. Keep your windows closed in the house, with the air conditioner on. In the car, keep the windows rolled up and the air conditioner on.”
He recommends over-the-counter and prescription medicines.
After the tree pollen, what will make us sneeze next?
“We start to get a lot of mold later in the season. Plus, after that, we get a little ragweed.”
Did You Know?
The Kleenex brand of facial tissue was invented as a means to remove cold cream.
* Introduced in 1924, early ads by movie stars such as Jean Harlow and Helen Hayes pitched the use of Kleenex to remove theatrical makeup.
* By the mid-1920s, customer response to the manufacturer indicated the product was being used more often as a disposable handkerchief.
* The familiar Kleenex carton with a perforated opening was introduced in 1928, and colored Kleenex tissue followed in 1929.
Compiled by News Researcher Karen Duffy from inventors.about.com; kleenex.com
Why Do We Sneeze?
Sneezing is one of the bocy's ways of expelling harmful substances:
*A sneeze is formed by the spasm of the chest and of the pharynx that connects the esophagus and the nasal cavity. When the nerve endings in the lining of the nose detect the irritating substances, they send impulses to the part of the brain that controls involuntary actions.
*The brain then signals the chest muscles to squeeze the lungs. And so, with a loud blast, the air is expelled through the nose in the form of a sneeze.
SOURCE: Indiana University School of Medicine Web site.
Serial story: THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE