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Allergies bogging down your Wyoming Valley experience? Here’s some answers

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WILKES-BARRE &#8212; For some people, spring means coughing, sneezing and wheezing as the allergy season kicks into full swing.So far this year, Dr. Anja Landis, a family physician at the Geisinger&#8211;Kistler Clinic, said it has been average in terms of Wyoming Valley patients complaining of seasonal allergies.Landis explained that the irritants can vary depending on the month, season and the individual. The season, she said, lasts from early March well into September.Landis said long, cold winters &#8212; like the one the Wyoming Valley recently endured &#8212; can create more intense allergy seasons.&#8220;If the winter is long and very cold, sometimes I think of the plants trying to get as much pollen out there as they can,&#8221; she said.Pollution factorsPollution also plays a role for allergy sufferers, which according Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is hitting close to home.A report from the NRDC indicates that four cities in Pennsylvania are listed among the top 35 that face both ragweed pollen and ozone pollution &#8212; nearby, three of those cities include Philadelphia, Allentown, and Harrisburg.The report also indicates that 1 in 3 Americans live in those top 35 cities.Kevin Stewart, director of environmental health at the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic, said that pollution could affect the Wyoming Valley as the area is downwind on some days from those areas.&#8220;Pollen levels tend to be even more influenced by local factors, including the growth and proliferation of pollen-producing species, wind speed and direction, and what the history of precipitation there has been,&#8221; he said.Stewart explained that ozone is formed in the atmosphere in the presence of heat and sunlight. That formation involves chemical reactions involving emissions from nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.Stewart said those pollutants come from places like vehicle exhausts, power plant emissions and industrial boilers. While they are harmful to the air quality, they are also another trigger for allergies and asthma.&#8220;Ozone is a powerful respiratory irritant and it causes inflammation of lung tissue,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Ozone levels typically build up in an area over the course of the daylight hours when it is sunny and the air movement is weak.&#8221;The report by NRDC indicates that 26 million Americans had asthma in 2010, up from 20 million in 2000. Landis explained that asthma is an overreaction of tubes in the lungs, which can cause coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing.Stewart called the statistic &#8220;surprising&#8221; and &#8220;dismaying.&#8221; He explained that another climb in the asthma rates was seen from 1970 to the mid 1990s, and showed signs of leveling off around 2000.While he said that asthma and allergies tend to be higher in urban areas with high ozone and pollen levels, other factors have to be considered, &#8220;so that association is not necessarily a cause-and-effect connection.&#8221;Too clean?Landis also said she believed the asthma rate is increasing, but said medical professionals still are not sure why. Sheltering kids from germs, however, was something she said could be to blame.She explained that kids are kept so clean now that they are not exposed to as many germs. As a result, their immune systems need to react to something.&#8220;We&#8217;re not exposing our kids to as many things, so they&#8217;re getting more allergies,&#8221; she said.

Wheezy days ahead for growing number in NEPA and beyond