Interviewed: Colleen Meiser Specialist in the Longwood University’s Health and Wellness center
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Small town of Farmville, Va, is the home of many things. It’s the home of two colleges, the national high bridge trail, a major Green Front furniture company, and one of the highest pollen rates in the nation. Pollen is rated on a 12 point scale and is measured by the number of grains of pollen in a cubic meter found in the air that reaches the nose.
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Pollen is the number one allergy that is known to effect people in the warm months where plants tend to grow. In Farmville Virginia, especially within the students at Longwood University, allergies are one of the top reasons students go to the Health and wellness center, which is the school doctor’s office for students.
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Colleen Meiser, specialist in the Longwood University’s Health and Wellness center, was able to explain some of the reasons she believes that pollen has become such a bad allergy for students. “I have students come in at least every day, and in this time of year its maybe about 20% to 30% complain about allergies,” said Meiser.
Looking at the rest of the graph the consistent numbers were because of the increase of the spring season and the blooming of the plants and trees. The lower numbers found throughout the month were of the days where it rained and washed all the produced pollen away making room for more pollen to be released and raise the number back up to the 10’s and 11’s on the scale.
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According to Meiser, as more students are starting to change environments between going home and back to school, the adjustment to pollen rates can cause an unnatural reaction. Seeing a wide range of where students are from, the common theme of a big change in environment causes the allergies to rise and become an issue for adjusting students.
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As the spring season ends and the summer season begins, the change in allergies and pollen being spread will cause more issues for those bothered by the high amounts of pollen in the air. Some things that students may need to know to prevent harsh reactions to pollen allergies is to look into a daily antihistamine such as Zyrtec, Claritin, or Allegra. According to Meiser these can be useful if they are started at least a month before the allergies start to flare up.
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According to Palley, in other cases decongestants are necessary, such as Sudafed to clear any mucus or pressure built up in the chest area. Along with a decongestant, a nasal spray like Afrin or Dristan can be used to clear the nasal passageway to provide a comfortable state of breathing.
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Though some allergies can become more server and need more assistance or a prescription to calm the reaction to them, but most cases of pollen allergies, over the counter medications can relieve symptoms fairly quickly.
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Precautions such as the ones listed above can help students suffering from pollen allergies like oak in the Farmville area. Farmville may be a beautiful place and full of beautiful environmental landscapes, but for those students coming to live in the area for school, come prepared ready for that beautiful yellow shade on your car and lots of allergies coming your way.
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Depending on the season, there are different reactions that occur because only certain pollen falls or is spread around in certain times of the year. Meiser said, “Seasonally how pollen occurs is first it is tree which is early spring, then grass comes in a little later spring, and then in the summer, particularly late summer, that’s when the ragweed and the weed pollen is bad.”
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Debbie Palley, Nurse practitioner and physician at Centra Southside Hospital, explains that pollen allergies in the area during the summer are mostly from common trees and in the months getting closer to fall allergies are from ragweed and grass.
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“In Farmville we have a lot of different deciduous trees that produce a number of pollen but right now mostly seen is oak pollen on the ground,” said Palley.
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Oak trees are known for their long stringy pollen that produces the yellow shade or tint that you normally see covering your car hoods. They are called catkins and produce in the early spring and fall within the first few weeks. There are many different types of oak trees such as Burr Oak, Gray Oak, Chestnut Oak, and Pin Oak. The only type of Oak tree that thrives in the Farmville area is the Pin Oak which is the main factor to the pollen allergies during the spring.
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The chart below focuses on the pollen rate starting in the beginning of the spring season going into the beginning of May. The numbers on this graph were provided by the national pollen radar. The first point on the graph is in the first week of April when the weather was still on the colder side which is why the points start low.
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