Sneeze City

Anne Hosier

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1998 | 8:58 a.m.

During the day, the sinus headaches and pressure behind her eyes made C.F. Ashton feel like she was "wearing too tight a turtleneck."

At night, she would awaken in coughing fits so severe they made her gag.

It wasn't until Ashton visited a doctor for a minor, unrelated ailment, however, that she discovered the source of her problem: acute allergies and asthma triggered by high levels of pollen and other allergens in the air in Las Vegas.

"I've never had this before. I only started getting affected when I moved here," says the former military wife, who has lived in more than a dozen cities all over the world during the past 25 years without experiencing such symptoms.

"There's just something about this valley."

In fact, physicians and allergy-sufferers alike agree that Las Vegas has become a sneezing, wheezing valley of misery.

With its skyrocketing pollen count, arid climate and pervasive dust, the valley has bestowed itchy eyes, runny noses, congestion and headaches on nearly 30 percent of its human residents, and itchy, sensitive ears and paws, and secondary skin infections on countless dogs and cats.

"Las Vegas is bad for allergies, and in animals too," says Laura Hokett, a local veterinarian who treats animal allergies. Hokett is particularly sensitive to her patients' suffering, since she also experiences allergies -- to animals and "everything in the desert.

"It's the most common skin problem we see here in animals, from inhaling dust and pollen from trees, and instead of causing respiratory problems like it does in people, it causes their feet to get red -- and they lick their feet a lot -- and their ears to be red ... and they itch."

As this year's allergy season gets under way in the next week or so, we can expect slightly more than the usual misery.

"I've lost my crystal ball," says Joram Seggev, M.D., an allergy and immunology specialist. "But since we didn't have a very cold winter ... I would expect this to be a really bad season."

The damage done

Ironically, many people who already suffer from allergies actually move to Las Vegas in hopes that they'll gain some measure of relief.

"There's still this fantasy around the country that we're in the desert" and that there's little pollen here, Seggev says.

But like Phoenix -- long the reigning Sneeze Capitol of the nation -- Las Vegas features a drastically altered natural landscape. Gone is much of the desert, its gnarled Joshua trees and stoic cacti. In its place are swimming pools, lush lawns and gardens filled with many of the same plants people came here to get away from.

The main culprits, for many people and pets, are the valley's estimated 200,000 mulberry and olive trees, which each spring cast off ungodly loads of highly irritating pollen into the wind.

"The pollen counts we see for mulberry and olive in spring are probably higher here than anywhere else (in the nation)," says Michael Naylor, director of the air pollution control division of the Clark County Health District.

"It goes right off the scale," adds Jeannette Londergan, an allergy technician at the Allergy Institute of Nevada. A count of 1,000 mulberry pollen grains per cubic meter of air is considered high, Londergan says. Last spring, air quality control experts measured 18 times that, according to information provided by the county.

Officials last spring counted less than 400 grains of olive pollen per cubic meter of air. "But our experience anecdotally is that olive pollen is more potent than mulberry," Naylor says. "The amount of suffering can be much higher than for mulberry."

Further planting of both types was banned in the valley several years ago. Yet much of the damage had already been done.

As the existing trees reach maturity -- most are now around 30 years old -- they're also peaking in pollen production. With an average life expectancy of around 70 years, Naylor says, these trees should be pushing the pollen count up for at least another decade.

Rain barrel effect

Naylor is one of the lucky ones: A few years ago he managed to kick his sensitivity to the pollens. But his experience has made him sympathetic to the plight of many newcomers.

About a decade after he moved here, he too began having itchy, watery eyes and sneezing fits. When over-the-counter medication failed to help, he turned to allergy shots. "We hear stories of people that move to town and don't have any allergies, then five years later they're sneezing violently during olive season," he says.

Some suffer from a non-allergenic nasal inflammation, or "vaso-motor rhinitis," brought on by the climate. "I have a significant number of patients who tell me they have allergies and I test them and (find they have) vasomotor rhinitis," Seggev says. "For practical purposes they don't have allergies, but they're still fairly miserable."

Others have a genetic predisposition toward allergies, but remain blissfully unaware of the fact while living in areas with low levels of pollen and other allergens. Once they arrive in Las Vegas, however, many of these people find themselves pushed beyond their natural resistance for the first time in their lives.

"There are a lot of factors here that create an ideal allergy setting," Londergan says. "It's kind of the rain barrel theory: That one (extra) thing causes the rain barrel to burst."

Joel Katz, M.D., a specialist in allergy and immunology, explains it in terms of thresholds.

"You've got allergenic thresholds, and as you add one thing on top of the other, you will (eventually) break through your threshold (and start) having symptoms," Katz says. "As people are exposed to increasing and increasing amounts , their chances of developing (allergies) is higher."

For those with allergenic tendencies, this process typically takes around three years, Katz says. "I moved here in '84, and for the first two years, nothing," says Chuck Russell, a hydrogeologist at the Desert Research Institute. "By the third year it was terrible. I would do anything to get out of town."

Hockett, on the other hand, was able to live here and practice veterinary medicine almost seven years without experiencing symptoms. But when they hit, they did so with a vengeance, triggering recurring sinus infections, watery eyes and congestion.

On her doctor's advice, Hokett eventually agreed to send her cats to live with friends, at least for the time being. But leaving Las Vegas and giving up her practice are not options she plans to consider.

"I just wouldn't," she says. "I would just suffer."

Cost and cure

This suffering is not without its price.

According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, hayfever causes an estimated 3.5 million missed work days each year, totaling more than $154 million in lost wages.

"The national cost for allergies alone, excluding asthma, we're talking a cost of $4 to $5 billion a year ... for medications, over-the-counter and prescription, going to the doctor, loss of time from school and work," Seggev says. "We're talking about much more than just a few sniffles."

The good news, though, is that there are some ways to at least alleviate the problem.

Many find relief in over-the-counter or prescription drugs, though Katz warns that decongestant nasal sprays are potentially addictive, meant only for short-term use and "tend to cause more problems than good."

Likewise, steroid shots -- which are different from antigen injections used over a long-term period to desensitize people to particular allergens -- offer quick relief along with potential risk.

"These are OK to occasionally use, but they should not be used as a way to take care of allergies, because steroids have side effects," Katz says.

On the other hand, antigen injections can be "extremely effective" when used in appropriately screened patients. And an "enzyme potentiated desensitization" treatment which has been used in England for 30 years, and is now being tested at the Allergy Institute of Nevada as part of an Investigational Review Board for the U.S. government, is also showing amazing results, Londergan says.

Those who prefer the natural route might try acupressure, offered by Richard Alexander, a holistic health practitioner at the Allergy Elimination Clinic. A number of herbal remedies, including something called "the Las Vegas mix," are also selling like hotcakes at Wild Oats Community Market, says Myrriah Wisham, who works in nutrition there.

"The drops are $10 and they last about a month," says Russell, who replaced his $60 weekly antigen shots with the Las Vegas mix formula.

Lynn Shaulis, a remote sensing scientist at the Desert Research Institute, has also found homeopathic remedies to be effective. "I just don't like the idea of getting steroids injected into my body," she says. "All I was getting was a big, swollen arm."

For those who suffer only mild, seasonal problems with pollen, Katz offers this advice:

"Keep your windows closed at night, use your air-conditioning while you're driving, minimize your early morning activities between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. when pollen counts are high. And if you have long hair, wash it before you go to bed."

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