Pollen piles up

It's yellow snow. No, it's a dust cloud.

Actually, it's a whole lot of tree and grass pollen that has been covering automobiles, porches, windowsills you name it.

This is the time of year for pollen, but recently there have been higher levels than usual.

Websites http://www.pollen.com and http://www.weather.com are predicting pollen counts for today and tomorrow to be high for tree pollen and very high for grass pollen.

The weather is clearly a factor when it comes to how much pollen we see, said Dr. N. Alan Harris, an allergist with Central Massachusetts Allergy & Asthma Care in Worcester and Auburn.

Sometimes we have a severe winter and everything bunches up and comes in one huge burst. Sometimes we have a mild winter and it gets spread out. This year it seems like we're getting huge amounts of pollen, said Dr. Harris. My best pollen count is looking at my car, the kitchen counter or on the back porch.

Dr. Harris said most people do not have allergies to pollen. But many people do, which means their body has an allergic immune response to a part of the pollen.

That immune response sets off a cascade of events when the pollen comes in contact with a mucus membrane or the lining of the lungs if you have asthma. The cascade of events leads to the symptoms: congestion, runny nose, sneezing, shortness of breath, coughing and itchy eyelids.

Ronnie Beauregard of Holland, grounds foreman at Worcester State University, got hit hard Tuesday after spending the morning and afternoon mowing the campus. Most of the thick lime green pollen was from the grass and pine trees, which produces large waxy particles.

When I got off the mower at the end of the day, I was covered in yellow dust my arms, my legs, everything. My mower was also covered, Mr. Beauregard said yesterday. Lake Ellie, where all the drain water runs off into, now that's all yellow, too.

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Pollen piles up