Allergy sufferers beware: Pollen is in the air

Monday, March 14, 2005 | 10:39 a.m.

Las Vegas Valley allergy sufferers can expect to be miserable this week, as winds reaching 19 mph are expected to keep already-high pollen levels blowing.

Trees such as mulberry, ash and juniper are spewing pollen grains across the valley at the rate of 1,500 grains in a cube of air three feet by three feet, monitoring technician Brenda Whitfield said.

"The pollen levels are high to very high," Whitfield said. "... Bad news for allergy sufferers."

Heather Larramendi said her 18-month-old daughter, Madelaine, had been to the doctor with the sniffles in the past week, but doctors didn't know whether the toddler had allergies or was teething.

Larramendi had no doubts about her own headache and stuffy sinuses.

"I never had allergies, I've never had a problem before I came here," Larramendi said as she flipped hamburgers for a family picnic Sunday afternoon at Sunset Park.

Since moving to Southern Nevada three years ago from Fort Collins, Colo., Larramendi has developed the sneezing, coughing and scratchy throat symptoms so familiar to thousands of allergy sufferers in the Las Vegas Valley.

Larramendi said she took over-the-counter medications for relief.

"They made me drowsy, but I feel much better," she said.

County Senior Monitoring Technician Monty Symmonds said this morning he did not expect it would be better for Larramendi and others. According to the department, winds are expected to range from 12 to 19 mph today throughout the valley.

The wind itself will likely not increase pollen levels, but will keep it in the air, he said.

Mulberry grains are in the range of 29,000 per cubic yard of air at Griffith Elementary School near Alta Drive and Valley View Boulevard, a reading four times as high as readings two weeks ago, Whitfield said.

Mulberry trees at Winterwood in northeastern Las Vegas and Baskin Park on West Oakey Drive are producing about 10,000 grains per cubic yard of air.

Technicians this morning were compiling data from local samplers and did not have exact numbers but said they expected high winds to pose a continued problem.

"Typically it (high winds) doesn't seem to affect the levels," Symmonds said. "You might see pollen get blown a little farther down but I expect the levels to stay high."

For Renata DelVecchio, a Las Vegas resident since 1980, the only escape from her allergy attacks is leaving town.

DelVecchio said she had gone to Bakersfield, Calif., and felt fine over the weekend.

As soon as her car returned to the Las Vegas Valley floor, DelVecchio said she started tearing up and feeling stuffy.

Tested for 45 possible allergens, 44 of the pinpricks proved she reacted to just about every pollen grain and animal dander.

"Cats are the only thing I'm not allergic to," DelVecchio said.

Besides allergy shots each week, DelVecchio's doctors prescribed inhalers for her nose and lungs.

In recent years, DelVecchio said she has undergone four surgeries on her nose and sinuses in an effort to relieve the allergic symptoms.

"Nothing works," she said.

Southern Nevada residents who have allergies have a reason for their symptoms.

The waiting room at UMC's Quick Care on Russell Road was packed on Sunday afternoon. A cacophony of sneezing and coughing could be heard from around the room.

When asked what symptoms people displayed, an intake clerk said, "Everything." A handful of patients on a typical day complain of allergic symptoms, she said. The number doubled over the weekend.