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 Recently
my brother-in-law, a college professor, was seeing a famous San
Diego allergist, who I'll not name. He tried to tell the allergist
all about my book, Allergy-Free Gardening. The allergist dismissed
it all as unimportant and then told him, "You want to know
why there's so much allergy nowadays?"
My brother-in-law said that,
yes, he certainly did want to know. "Women's Lib,"
said the learned doctor. "Women used to stay home where
they belonged and they took care of the kids and kept their houses
neat and clean.
Now, well, now they all have to have jobs, just like the men,
and who's taking care of the house? Nobody! That's why there's
so much allergy now. Their houses are filthy and covered with
dust."
My brother-in-law wasn't quite
sure what to make of that. I have an answer for that doctor.
An increase in house dust isn't driving the allergy rates sky-high.
Not even close. What's gone up is the amount of pollen in our
cities. In some areas, Tucson, Arizona, for example, there is
actually ten times more pollen in the air there now than there
was just thirty years ago! And I can document that.
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It isn't just Arizona either. In
city after city, north and south, all around the civilized world,
everywhere that modern, low-litter, litter-free, seedless, male
landscaping has become popular, pollen rates are up. Even though
in many cities there is now less total green matter than in the
past, there is still more pollen than ever. And more allergy,
too. Not long ago I was out in my own neighborhood, camera in
hand, looking for some choice high-allergy landscapes to photograph.
I didn't have to go far. |
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I was standing, carefully, on
the public sidewalk, taking a close-up shot of some Groundsel
bush ( Baccharis sp.) used as a ground cover in this front yard.
An older gentleman came out of the house, looked at me and asked,
"Now, what in the world could be worth photographing in
my yard?" "I'm an allergy researcher, Sir," I
said. "Yeah?" he asked. "Some problem here?"
"This ground cover is all
male," I said. "All-male, and all of it rather closely
related to ragweed." "Humm," he said. "And
that big row of junipers you've got there," I said, pointing
to the side of his yard, "looks like every one of them is
a male, too. That ash tree of yours, notice how it doesn't have
any seeds?" "Yeah?"
"It's a male tree. Actually, your entire yard, everything
in it except that climbing rose bush on the front porch, all
of it could have been designed to cause allergies. Anybody here
have allergies?" "Sure," he said, "my wife.
She's got terrible allergies."
I looked at the yard full of male ground cover, all of it in
full bloom.
"Well," I said, "I'd be willing to bet she's having
allergies right now."
"Yep," he said, "she
certainly is."
Now, I didn't even bother to
ask him if his wife kept their house spotless and dust-free.
It was a nice house, in an expensive neighborhood, and somehow
I seriously doubted, that his wife's allergies were being caused
by Women's Lib. |
