SPRING GARDEN TOWNSHIP, YORK COUNTY, Pa. -- Allergy sufferers brace yourselves.
Now that the cold weather has finally hit the road temperatures are up and things are blooming, putting pollen counts through the roof.
“We had such a late spring and it was so cold that now that pollens are really peaking all at once, all of them, so that’s creating a lot of problems for people," said Debra Hunt, National Certified Pollen Counter.
Certified Pollen Counter, Debra Hunt, says the numbers are based on the amount of pollen collected in a spinning tray outside that is tested daily.
If numbers go over 1,500 they are considered “very high."
“Normally it’s trees in the spring, then the grasses come after that, and then in the fall we have the weeds," said Hunt.
But the problem this year is the grasses and trees are all coming together at the same time, with Oak tree's being the culprit.
That’s why Dr. Amy Auerbach, with Allergy & Asthma Consultants in York County says her office has been about as busy as it gets.
“Instead of having what we normally have which is different trees with different pollen counts at different times and different weeks, it was all at once and levels got over 5,000, over 6,000, which is extraordinarily high and is going to cause a lot of people with tree allergies to have a lot of symptoms," said Dr. Amy Auerbach, with Allergy & Asthma Consultants in York County.
There are some things that you can do, though, to get some relief.
“If the over the counter stuff isn’t working, get some help, either with their family doctor or an allergist, so that they can get some assistance tailoring a treatment plan, especially for the next month or so," added Auerbach.
But what if you have a little one suffering with allergies?
“There’s a lot of homeopathic things you can do, like when they come in from being outside, rinse their eyes out with cool water, you can use cool compresses, there are some eyedrops that are safe to use in children as young as age 2, and then we can even tailor doses to very young children as well," added Auerbach.
To check what the pollen count is, you can visit: yorkallergy.com
