Rivers of yellow plant dust lining local streets. Seemingly year-round symptoms.
Residents of southeastern Virginia are all too familiar with the effects of pollen.
But a recent report from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America confirms it: Hampton Roads is particularly sneezy.
The nonprofit listed the Virginia Beach region as the 11th most challenging place in the U.S. for allergy sufferers, out of the 100 most populated areas.
Richmond rated a few notches higher, at No. 8. Wichita, Kansas took the top spot.
The Allergy Foundation scores cities based on annual pollen counts, over-the-counter allergy medicine use and the number of allergists in the area.
Why did Hampton Roads rate so high? WHRO spoke with Jim Blando, an associate professor in environmental health with Old Dominion University, to find out.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WHRO: What did you think when you saw the recent report?
Jim Blando: My first thought was, not surprising at all. Here, we have several characteristics that are very interesting – one of the major ones being that it's warm and we have a lot of moisture. We're surrounded by a lot of water, tend to get storms coming off the ocean that can dump a lot of water in the area and result in flooding. The more moisture and the more warmth that you have, the more growth you're going to have. If you have structures, leaky roofs and those sorts of things, they get wet and they start growing mold, plants and vegetation will grow more and produce more pollen as a result of that.
Because of where we're located, we have a really interesting variety of plants and things that will grow here. And in fact I've been told by botanists that we can have northern plants and southern plants both growing in the same area around here because the ranges overlap of these different plants. So the consequence of that is you have a tremendous variety of plants that bloom all different times a year, produce lots of different types of pollen. Add on top of that that we’re a pretty populated area, lots of aerosols that are generated from traffic and other things. The combination oftentimes can result in more severe reactions to allergies and those sorts of things. Ozone can be produced because of the sort of urban mix that we have. That combination of pollens and biologic aerosols, mold spores and chemical pollutants, oftentimes can result in more severe reactions to allergies.
WHRO: And then I understand climate change is also expected to make things worse. Why and how is that?
JB: Overall warming of the global mean temperature generally has resulted in longer pollen seasons. So plants start blooming earlier, they start producing pollen earlier, and they produce it for longer. Plants also tend to produce more pollen. Some of the studies that USDA has done and others have shown that some of the pollens that are produced by, for example, certain types of trees, the proteins in their pollen that causes the allergies, the actual allergen content is actually increasing with increasing temperatures, especially increasing temperatures at night. The data has shown that the pollen season has extended both on the front and the back end. As a result of that, people's exposure is not only increasing (in) quantity, but it's also increasing in length of time, which means people are likely to experience a longer period of allergic symptoms.
One of the big impacts that sea level rise will have is it will cause areas to get flooded that maybe weren't getting flooded routinely. You're going to have more moisture, more mold, more plant growth. When you have more extreme rainfall, you have the same amount of moisture in a much shorter period of time. If it’s coming down so fast that there's not enough time for the water to drain through the soil, you can have more flooding. And again that flooding is going to breed all kinds of things that can be problematic. So it really is a problem.
Climate change doesn't necessarily just mean dry and hot all the time. Really what it means is the whole system's out of balance. So you have this cycling between droughts and floods.
It’s really that complex interplay between the seasons, the amount of moisture, what the weather patterns are, and climate change is impacting all of that.
WHRO: I think people sometimes think of allergies as a nuisance, and they are. But what are some of the longer-term health impacts of allergy exposure?
JB: One of the things that allergies will do is it'll certainly prime your immune system and there are some people that tend to have more of an inflammatory response than others. People that have things like eczema, psoriasis, allergic asthma, you'll find that they tend to have a stronger pro-inflammatory response when they're exposed to things, especially things that are allergenic like pollens and mold spores. The short-term consequence is that you're more likely to have an allergic reaction that will precipitate an asthma attack. And anybody that has asthma could certainly tell you that it's not a pleasant experience. It can be really problematic, and results in hospitalizations. People that are exposed to pollutants and allergens together are more likely to have a more severe respiratory infection.
Now the long-term consequences is that, when people have this sort of pro-inflammatory response, certain aspects of your biological response will result in inflammation, and chronic inflammation over a long period of time could be associated potentially with other adverse conditions, like for example having their respiratory function gradually decrease over time.
WHRO: So what can people do to protect themselves?
JB: Certainly people should visit with their health care provider and get whatever appropriate medical care that they need. I think it's always a good idea, especially if you have a condition like asthma, to not only have your primary care physician, but have somebody who specializes in allergies or asthma that also is caring for you.There are over the counter medicines that can be beneficial for people that have allergies.
For some environmental controls, a few things that are beneficial is for example, in-home air cleaners, especially HEPA filters. Studies have shown that, in fact, your typical filtration system can have a very positive impact on lowering the concentration of pollens and other particles in the home. The only caution that we oftentimes will tell folks is that our advice has always been to buy filtration or air cleaners that have filters in them, like a HEPA filter or high-efficiency filter. Some of the air cleaners use electrical pulses or discharges. One of the unfortunate things about using electrical discharges and trying to generate ions and those sorts of things is you can generate ozone, and ozone is a very strong irritant also. So while you're trying to fix one problem, you could be creating another. So our advice to people is get the filtration base.
Recognize your triggers and think about, how can I practically reduce my exposure to those triggers? Think about what kind of plants you put inside the home. You walk around on your lawn and your shoes are covered in pollen. If you take your shoes off before you walk around your house so you don't spread it all around your house. If you're cutting the grass or doing yard work and cutting up plants and pruning and doing those things, maybe change your clothes before you start sitting around on the furniture in your home. Of course we have to live in the real world. Nobody lives in a bubble. So you're certainly not going to get away from pollens and molds because they're ubiquitous in the environment. Whatever’s practically possible.
