Allergies

[petrea_mitchell]

I have allergies to tree pollen. One of the more immediate downsides to the sudden shift to working from home is that happened just as tree pollen season was starting here, and there are a lot more trees in my neighborhood than around the office downtown.

But I have a weird second allergy season in mid-to-late December, when there shouldn't be anything making pollen around here. It's definitely something in the air; it gets worse on dry and windy days, and eases up when we get a good strong rain. It's not nearly as bad as the spring, but I'm as baffled as to what's causing it.

Comments

Mold?

[lsanderson]

Mold spores often peak in the fall, and they go down with rain and up with wind. Or at least in my mind they do

[joseph_teller]

Mold is one possibility.... another might be a reaction to what is being burned for fuel in your area for power or heat.

Our Air quality randomly is randomly showing increased particulates, probably from either the power plant on the river or the Steam Plant that Harvard has that runs the centralized heating system for a bunch of their older buildings.

Another possibility would be local wood stoves or oil burners that don't have proper filter systems (or ones that haven't been properly maintained) and are throwing stuff into your air.

[petrea_mitchell]

There's a possibility I hadn't thought about. There are people in the neighborhood burning wood at this time of year.