(previously published here at www.thebulletin.us)
By: Heather Chin, The Bulletin
07/18/2008
Don't think it's just you. It is not your imagination. Age has nothing to do with it. Things really are worse this year. Everyone is feeling the pressure.
Yes, this is a vintage year, maybe a historic year, for allergy miseries. Many of us are having just a little more trouble breathing. Our sinuses feel as though they are under attack. Coughing and sneezing and scratching incessantly at dry eyes seems to have become a more or less permanent condition.
Although observers described last year as an especially bad allergy season on the East Coast, with a mild winter and late growing season exacerbating already warm weather, 2008 is already providing even more frustrating conditions for allergy sufferers.
Tree pollen, mold and grass pollen were the most common, active pollen types in the Philadelphia area during June, with "very high" levels according to Weather.com's Pollen Almanac, and mold allergens have dominated the scene through the first half of July.
Seasonal allergies are caused by airborne pollens, which are released from trees and grasses during pollination and reproduction. Beginning with the spring pollination of trees and the early summer introduction of grass particles, allergens trigger the strongest reactions in summer and early fall.
This year, "with the mild winter, the trees have been blooming earlier, and the first cases of allergy exacerbation started in early March," said Corinna Bowser, M.D., an allergist at Adult and Pediatric Asthma and Allergy, in Havertown, whose practice serves patients throughout the region. "The counts have been [especially] high because it hasn't been raining a lot and rain usually clears the air of allergens."
Dr. Bowser said she has observed an increase in reports of first-time allergy suffering by people in their 40s and 50s. Allergic reactions to outdoor allergens usually first present themselves in teenagers and those in their 20s.
The creation of a seemingly new group of allergy sufferers may be the result of more people reporting their allergies, rather than the development of new airborne issues, Dr. Bowser, who is also part of the teaching faculty at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, said. Either way, it can be excruciating for allergy sufferers.
"People who have had allergies for some time, but never bad enough to seek care [may be] finally pushed over the edge [to seek treatment] now that the counts have been higher and the effect has been worse."
There are other theories and possibilities being considered by asthma, allergy and immunology specialists, including the impact of climate change (warmer temperatures leading to higher pollen counts) and something called the hygiene hypothesis.
"Our super clean environment, perhaps, may actually put more people at added risk for developing allergies down the line," Dr. John Sundy, an allergy specialist at Duke University Medical Center, told a local television station. This risk would come not from too little hand-washing, but from a lack of early exposure to natural environments that include allergy triggers like pollen, dust and animal fur.
American Lung Association statistics indicate residents under age 18 and over age 65 living in the five-county Philadelphia area are at a high risk of developing everything from pediatric asthma to chronic bronchitis and CV disease to diabetes.
Common allergy triggers in Pennsylvania, as listed on Weather.com, include alfalfa, honeysuckle, horse chestnut, poison sumac [leaves], post oak and prairie ragweed.
In addition to the typical plant-related allergens such as pollen and ragweed, atmospheric conditions such as ozone levels and levels of particulate matter also cause concern.
A recent German study suggests that pollution levels, especially those from vehicular-derived particles and aerosols, can increase the possibility of sensitivity to allergens.
Many options exist to aid allergy sufferers, ranging from asking doctors about allergy medications and antihistamines to timing outdoor activities to avoid early morning pollen saturation.
Heather Chin can be reached at hchin@thebulletin.us
©The Evening Bulletin 2008
Living near roads that are heavily trafficked and polluted increases a child's risk of developing physician-diagnosed asthma, allergies and atopic diseases (chronic skin diseases) by more than 50 percent, a new study finds.
The 17-month study by researchers from Germany's Center for Environment and Health at the Institute of Epidemiology was based on the idea, as described by the lead author Joachim Heinrich, Ph.D, that "[children] living very close to a major road are likely to be exposed not only to a higher amount of traffic-derived particles and gases but also to a more freshly emitted aerosols which may be more toxic."
The study's results were published in the second June 2008 issue of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Medicine. In his summary, Dr. Heinrich considers them to "provide strong evidence for the adverse effects of traffic-related air pollutants on atopic diseases as well as on allergic sensitization."
This is the first study to report an association between allergic sensitization and pollution levels. Previous studies done in the United States found links between the two, but took into account various socioeconomic, environmental and behavioral factors that are also associated with life in urban areas, making a causal relationship between pollutant exposure and allergic risk impossible.
Socioeconomic variables in U.S. studies over the past two years include the effect of diesel exhaust particles on airborne allergenic particles, environmental variables include ozone levels, and behavioral factors include recreational time spent indoors instead of outdoors.
Researchers for this study, however, say that older European cities like Munich, where the study was conducted, have roads and buildings that are established in a way that makes it possible to eliminate a correlation with economic advantages or disadvantages.
Approximately 2,900 four-year-olds and over 3,000 six-year-olds who had been born and were enrolled in school in the metropolitan area of Munich, Germany, were examined over the course of the study. The children's long-term exposure to traffic pollutants were calculated as a function of the distance from their houses to the major roads at birth and at ages two, three and six. Control groups were used to account for individual circumstances such as pet ownership, pet allergies and number of siblings.
Parents filled out questionnaires about their child[ren]'s respiratory diagnoses and symptoms while children were evaluated for asthma, sneezing, wheezing and eczema. At age six, all of the children were tested for food allergies. In addition, the air in each of 40 identified points near high traffic areas was tested for smog, soot and other particulate matter, as well as nitrogen oxide (NO2) once per season between March 1999 and July 2000.
On top of the 50 percent greater risk of allergic sensitization, the results found strong positive links between the distance of the nearest road and diseases such as hay fever, asthmatic bronchitis, eczema and allergic sensitizations. Also, children who lived within half a block (50 meters/164 feet) to a busy street had the highest probability of getting symptoms, compared to children living further away.
Heather Chin can be reached at hchin@thebulletin.us