It's The Season For Sneezing

1. Vernal equinox come and gone? Check.
2. Thick coating of yellow-green powder covering everything outside (and most everything inside)? Check.
3. Sneezing, itchy eyes, sinus pressure, etc..., etc..., etc...? Check!

That's right, folks! It's pollen season again! About 60 million Americans suffer from allergic rhinitis every year (http://www.aaaai.org/) and I'm one of them. I came across a few granules of pollen knowledge in this great resource we have, Airborne Allergens: Something in the Air, that I think you need to know.

• Pollen count is essentially how many individual grains of pollen can be found in one square meter of air in a 24-hour period. You can find your local pollen count at http://www.pollen.com/allergy-weather-forecast.asp and http://www.weather.com/activities/health/allergies/. Jackson's pollen count today is 10.8. Yes, that's high!
• Ragweed pollen has been found up to 400 miles out to sea and as far as 2 miles up in the sky.
• Did you know that "because pine pollen is heavy, it tends to fall straight down from the tree"? Because of this, "it doesn't scatter in the wind" and "rarely reaches human noses." It just makes a huge mess!
• Just one little ragweed plant can produce one million grains of pollen in a day.

By the way, I'm one of the many who hopes and prays for rain so that it will wash away the pollen. According to Dr. Gailen Marshall, that spring cleaning only lasts about twelve hours before the pollen is back! Are you sure you want to go to the trouble of washing your car?!

http://www.aaaai.org/media/statistics/allergy-statistics.asp
http://www.mpbonline.org/content/allergy-season-0
US Department of Health and Human Services. Airborne Allergens: Something in the Air. National Institutes of Health, 2003.