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For the estimated 36 million people in this country who are allergic to ragweed, global warming is just more bad news.
The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology is about to publish a new study suggesting global warming may worsen the situation even more.
August 15 unofficially marks the beginning for the ragweed season and other weeds that irritate our fall allergies. Ragweed is not as prevalent in Utah as say the Midwest, but there are other weeds that could be just as threatening should global warming have an impact here.
The new study, scheduled for release next month, suggests increasing temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are already extending the ragweed seasons and producing a more concentrated pollen count.
Consider this. One ragweed plant can produce 1 billion pollen grains. They can travel up to 400 miles with the breeze leaving, as the Academy says, virtually no outdoor place ragweed free.
If it's happening to ragweed, researchers say it will happen to a variety of allergenic plants. Sage, for example, is much more common in Utah than ragweed. Janet Jones knows ragweed and other fall weeds all too well. She says, "Before I came here, I thought I actually was going to die because of the symptoms I have: the coughing, the asthma, and the swollen eyes. I laid in bed most of the time."
Like Janet, 11-year-old Kaara Bringhurst comes to the Intermountain Allergy and Asthma Clinic to get shots to keep her from getting real sick. She says, "I go in once a week, get shots in both arms."
But allergy and asthma specialist Dr. Duane Harris warns about reading to much into this latest study. What may happen is still based on theory and speculation. "We may see increases in pollen counts. We may see prolongation of pollen seasons, and we may not. It depends not only on the temperature rising and CO2 rising, but also on wind and rain and a number of things." Harris says.
Dr. Harris worries more about the effects of pollution. That's a much more imminent threat, he believes, than what global warming may do to the pollen count.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
