Mold surge makes life miserable for allergy sufferers

Experts blame weird weather for record spore count in Chicago

August 08, 2012|By Mitch Smith and Cynthia Dizikes, Chicago Tribune reporters
  • Spores of cladosporium mold are shown magnified 3,400 times. Mold readings in the Chicago area hit a record high Monday and remained very high Tuesday, triggering strong reactions in some allergy sufferers.

Kathy Olalde was gardening Monday when her chest grew heavy and her eyes began to itch.

Olalde, 64, popped an allergy pill, but the relentless congestion eventually drove her into her air-conditioned Melrose Park home.

"The hay fever season is not even here yet, but then I saw the mold count," Olalde said. "I just said, 'Holy cow, that's why I felt like that.' "

Microscopic mold spores swirling in the air are making life unusually miserable for allergy sufferers, the result of this year's weird weather and all the rotting vegetation it has left behind. Monday's mold count is the highest on record in Chicago, according to Dr. Joseph Leija, Chicago's longtime allergen measurer.

Leija, an allergist at Loyola University Health System's Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, said he has been measuring mold and other allergens for more than 15 years. Monday's reading of 125,000 spores in a cubic meter of air is the highest he's recorded and 2.5 times higher than the 50,000 spores that constitute a "very high" reading.

Saturday's rainfall and wind, along with sustained high temperatures and humidity, are to blame for the mold growth, Leija said.

An early start to the growing season, followed by a drought that left many crops rotting in their fields, also might have contributed, said Dr. Mary Tobin, who directs Rush University Medical Center's allergy division.

When strong storms swept across the state last weekend, she said, conditions were ripe for mold to grow rapidly and spread through the wind.

That mold, along with high ragweed counts, is filling allergists' offices with patients.

Kelly Merriwether, a native Chicagoan who now lives in Canada, was back in the Midwest on Monday and riding the "L" when her eyes watered, her throat grew sore and her nose started running "like a faucet."

A longtime allergy sufferer, Merriwether joked that she is allergic to Chicago.

"I came back here and all of a sudden my allergies just went crazy," she said. "It just seems like, this time, it's awful."

Merriwether felt somewhat better Tuesday, when Leija's mold count registered 64,000 spores. Mold can grow quickly and vary widely from day to day, Tobin said. Mornings tend to be the worst time of day.

Allergen counts have been around for years, said WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling, who remembers reporting them four decades ago. One Tribune story from 1986 mentioned a medical technologist who climbed to the roof of an office building each day to take allergen measurements for her patients. But in recent years, the readings have become commonplace and increasingly regulated, according to Dr. Kraig Jacobson, an Oregon allergist and fellow at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

"There were a lot of people using a lot of different equipment and not using a standardized approach and giving really bogus data," Jacobson said. "We wanted to make sure the whole process was more scientific."

The academy's National Allergy Bureau, which started in 1992, certifies volunteer reporters. The bureau has reporters around the country who measure mold, pollen and other irritants. Leija, who takes a reading every weekday of allergy season at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, was certified by the bureau in 2003.

Skilling, who gets his readings from Leija, said mold counts fit into weather reports just like ozone and other particulates that affect "atmospheric cleanliness."

"Only, (mold) is a natural air pollutant," Skilling said. "Also, it's become clear to me over the years as I've reported this, that weather drives the severity of these levels in many cases."

Mold is fungus that occurs naturally in the soil and on dead and decaying matter, according to the Georgia Division of Public Health. Different types of mold thrive under different conditions. When mold spores circulate in the air, often as a result of wind, some varieties cause strong allergic reactions in some people.

Like pollen, which is released by flowers in order for them to procreate, mold spores can aid in fungal reproduction.

"The spore to the mold is like pollen is to a plant," Jacobson said. "It is the tiny spores that get into the airways and cause respiratory problems."

Mold levels generally peak in September or October, Tobin said. Until this week, Chicago had only had six days of "very high" mold readings since 2010. When readings spike, allergy sufferers often stay inside with their air conditioners turned on to combat humidity.

Tyler Beth woke up Tuesday congested and with itchy eyes. The online advertising worker has an office in the Merchandise Mart. He ate lunch in that building Tuesday as a way to avoid the allergens outside.

"This has been probably the worst it's been this year so far for me," said Beth, a longtime allergy sufferer who fights his symptoms with over-the-counter medication.

Olalde, the gardener, was diagnosed with allergies about 25 years ago. She went to the allergist on Tuesday to get her routine allergy shots for ragweed, dander and mold.

This season she also plans on keeping her house and car windows closed and the air conditioner on. Unfortunately for her, Tobin expects mold counts to remain high through the fall.

"Right now," Olalde said, "I'm just staying in, and we'll see how the mold counts go as the days go by."