Hurricane Sandy contributes to wicked bad pollen count

This is a tough time of the year for people with seasonal allergies. All the moisture from Superstorm Sandy has driven up pollen counts.

Yellow pollen from trees is now coating many cars and driveways in New Jersey.

Dr. Leonard Bielory is an allergy investigator at the Rutgers Center for Environmental Prediction.  He says this is an unusually severe allergy season.

“Tree pollen actually has peaked and it’s gone probably the highest since I’ve been doing pollen counting. This time of year we normally see pollen counts up to four, five, six thousand pollen grains per cubic meter. We’ve seen double that.”

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Bielory says the tree pollen will be tapering off in the next week or two, but grass pollen got off to an early start and will last a few more weeks.

He says more people are developing allergy problems for the first time in their 30s, 40s and 50s, and its not clear why that’s happening.

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