Pollen Count Something To Sneeze At Allergist Keeps Track Of Those Airborne Irritants That Make People Miserable

It’s a crime what pollen can do. Rob people of their breath. Make ‘em cry.

Take the woman who came into the Allergy and Asthma Clinic on Monday.

“She was screaming miserable,” said Dr. John Strimas.

The tall, wavy-haired doc already had seen the likely culprits. They were hot-pink dots in a microscopic lineup - tree pollen that had shown up in town right after the last big snow, wafting down from cedars, alders and aspens. Sneaking up nostrils.

Strimas apparently is the source of daily pollen counts in the Inland Northwest. The Spokesman-Review expects to publish his findings starting April 15 as part of its weather package.

For now, sneezers and wheezers who want to find out what’s bothering them can check The Weather Channel. It was folks there who called Strimas and asked if he’d take on the task.

They had noted a gap between cities where the information is available. A major gap. It extended from Seattle to Sioux Falls, S.D. In fact, nobody else in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming collects information for the Aeroallergen Monitoring Network.

Strimas uses a gadget called a rotorod sampler. He installed it last September on the roof of Kootenai Medical Center.

But that fourth-story perch proved too high to be an ideal site for capturing pollen. This spring, Strimas has gotten good readings from his office and from his back porch near Tubbs Hill.

But he’s on the prowl for the perfect place. That would be the top of a one-story building where the equipment would be accessible but safe from vandals.

The sampler is the size of a small breadbox set on one skinny leg. A smaller spinning device hangs from the bottom of the box. When it whirs around for one minute out of every 10, two silicon-coated rods pop out.

The inch-long rods collect the pollen grains. After using red dye to highlight them, Strimas looks at the pollen under the microscope. A photographic guidebook is at his elbow.

“This morning’s slide is almost all cedar,’ he said Monday.

His calculations showed 248 grains of pollen per cubic meter of air. Based on what’s been found in other towns, he labeled that pollen count “high.” Last week, it was moderate.

Strimas will build an allergen track record for Coeur d’Alene. He’ll chart the cycle of pollen from trees, grasses and weeds, as well as mold.

The chart will provide a medical early warning system. Strimas can prescribe the proper sprays and drops and shots, treating patients before they’re screaming miserable.

“It’s hard to rescue them at that point,” Strimas said.

Last year’s pollen counts showed that grass is a big perpetrator here. That’s not a surprise, Strimas said, considering grass is a commercial crop.

There’s a lot of pine pollen, too. That’s the yellow-green stuff that slimes your car in its shotgun approach to airborne reproduction. But not many people are allergic to it, Strimas said.

Besides, “pine pollens are cute. They have little balloons attached.”

Strimas says he doesn’t expect to find that infamous assailant known as ragweed. “It just does not grow here. For the rest of the country, it’s a big problem.”

Along with the pollen, many other shapes appear under the microscope. Strimas calls it “junk.” You’d call it dust, smoke, pollution. Scientists call it particulate matter.

Black carbon soot showed up during last fall’s grass-field burning, Strimas said.

Collecting and analyzing the pollen takes a lot of time. Strimas isn’t thrilled about that. But he’s fascinated with what he finds.

“When I was growing up, I always thought I’d be a farmer or a forest ranger,” said the New York native. “This is my little connection with nature.”

Strimas thinks the published pollen counts at least will satisfy the curiosity of allergy sufferers. (“Oh, so that’s what’s bothering me!”) There are many sufferers, possibly a third of the population.

Does Strimas have allergies?

“No. I keep testing, but I don’t.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo