Columnist Susan Snyder: Sinus up for another bad rating

Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | 8:10 a.m.

Las Vegas has made another list of worst cities.

This time we're middle worst, rather than worst worst (not to be confused with liverwurst, which is great with onions and a little mayo).

But being 25th on the Asthma and Allergy Foundation's list of top 50 allergy cities is nothing to sneeze at, said Mike Tringale, foundation spokesman.

"It's not like being No. 1 and 50 is bad. All 50 are bad. This is the worst of the worst," Tringale said.

Yay for us.

Right about now you're wondering which cities join us in this nasal notability. Some cities have been lumped into metropolitan pollen capitals, so the entire list is too long to print. Look for it on allergyactionplan.com.

The top five, with the first city being worst of the worst of the worst, are: Louisville, Ky.; Austin, Texas; St. Louis; Atlanta; and Charlotte, N.C. The five least of the worst are: Milwaukee; Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, Va.; Denver; San Francisco; and Los Angeles.

Phoenix came in at No. 24, making it just slightly worse than Las Vegas. The city in the No. 26 spot, just after Las Vegas, is Baltimore. I figure everyone's allergic to Baltimore, especially in the winter.

Cities were rated using the per capita number of antihistamine prescriptions written, the per capita number of board-certified allergists and the average pollen counts for the past seven years.

Las Vegas doctors wrote 6,000 prescriptions per 100,000 people, and it has 15 allergists per 100,000 people (in Louisville, 50,000 prescriptions were written per 100,000 people).

Pollen counts for the city rankings was a complicated formula that measured 100 different kinds of tree, grass and weed pollens, along with when and how long they bloomed, Tringale said.

To find out which pollens are blooming and the pollen levels for any town in the country, log onto pollen.com. The website is maintained by Surveillance Data Inc., the research company that provided the pollen counts for the allergy city ranking.

On Monday the site said ragweed, grass and olive trees are most likely to make Las Vegans sneeze right now. A medium-high pollen count of 6.3 is predicted for today, and high levels of 10 and 9.6, respectively, are forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.

"Not all pollens cause the same allergic reactions," he said.

No, sufferers often endure a host of maladies, from itchy watery eyes to sneezy, runny noses to burning, itching rashes. Allergies are a wonder of misery, especially here in the desert. That could be a revelation to the vast numbers of newcomers moving to desert regions.

"We think people shouldn't have them there (in the desert)," Tringale said.

Allergies are more prevalent than we may think. Tringale's group says they affect about 50 million Americans, or nearly 20 percent of the population.

Results of a poll due out this month show 60 percent of sufferers said allergies severely limit their lives. They miss four days of work on average annually and lose 10 hours of sleep each month.

"If this were any other type of disease, it would be considered an epidemic," he said. "But we just accept it. Live with it, and joke about it."

Yes, like our national rankings, which grow like weeds.