A 3-hankie allergy season

Afte After a cold, snowy winter, there's something heady about the advent of spring, with trees greening up, grass peeking through the thatch, flowers beginning their colorful debut. For people who have seasonal allergies, though, it's the advent of misery.

Spring 2004 is apt to be a whopper for allergies, said Dr. Allan C. Edson, allergist and immunologist. "Allergies are probably going to be worse this year than in the past several years because, with the easing of the drought conditions, we'll see more prolific plant growth and more pollen," he warned.

"It's hard to predict what the whole spring will be like," said Dr. Kay Walker, who treats allergies and asthma, "but I will say this is a hard and heavy March, one of the worst I've seen."

As telling as a pollen count, she said, are patient calls. And the phones have been ringing in her office. "It just hit very hard, very fast, very heavy — so much higher than usual. And people who might not have had a problem in past years are having a hard time."

Red eyes. Sneezing. Asthma attacks. Earliest symptoms may even be hives or eczema. And it's getting harder to escape pollens because they're wind-borne. Doctors used to send allergy sufferers to arid states like Arizona and New Mexico. Now pollens from neighboring states and the popularity of non-native plants have erased those havens. Edson said a test that sent a pollen collector out to sea with a Navy crew — kept covered and pristine until it was more than 200 miles from any land — found lots of ragweed in the air in the middle of the ocean.

Locally, trees are the first outdoor allergy activators, and already elm tree pollen counts are high along the Wasatch Front, said Carol Maw of the Intermountain Allergy and Asthma Clinic. So are those from maple and poplar trees. And the sometimes-severe symptoms triggered by cedar are just getting going. Soon, willow, sycamore, ash, privet, gingko, walnut and others will add to the headache for a growing number of Utahns.

Allergies have long been considered as seasonal as the weather: trees in spring, grasses in summer, then weeds in fall and a focus on indoor allergens like cat dander in winter along the Wasatch Front. In the mountains, the pollen comes out a little later. July's usually the least-busy month for pollens, since grass is almost done and the weeds haven't ramped up their pace yet.

But Edson said he sees a lot of overlap of those seasons since he moved his medical practice to Utah — trees pollinating earlier and grasses and weeds growing longer.