They're the Seven Dwarfs of spring - Itchy, Sneezy, Weepy, Runny, Drippy, Stuffy and Auntie Hystamine.

They're moving into a starring role as trees come alive and start dusting the air with pollen. People with allergies to that pollen, who have been breathing free, suddenly have sinuses that drip like a tapped sugar maple.

"It's starting,'' Dr. Richard Lee of Allergy and Asthma Associates of Danbury said of the season at hand.

While it's unclear how terrible the next two months may be for allergy sufferers, pollen counts have already reached high levels. "I expect a hefty season,'' said Dr. Christopher Randolph , an allergist with offices in Southbury and Waterbury.

Dr. John Santilli , chairman of allergy medicine at St. Vincent 's Medical Center in Bridgeport, said Tuesday pollen counts in southern Fairfield County reached about 300 grains of pollen per cubic meter of air. That constitutes a heavy count, although nowhere near as high as the thousands of grains per cubic meter that can come in mid-to-late May.

"I don't know if it will be a bad year,'' Santilli said. "But if you've got moderate to severe allergies to tree pollen, it's already a bad year.''

Nor will the weather help anytime soon. A full day of rain can wash pollen out of the air, but Bill Jacquemin , owner of the Connecticut Weather Center in Danbury, said that's not forthcoming.

"We'll have some showers on Thursday and again on Saturday. But that's it,'' he said. "I don't see any real change in the weather we've been having through the next week.''

Plants release fine grains of pollen as part of their reproductive cycle. The wind or insects take pollen - which carries the male gametesto the female reproductive structures of plants, which are the flowers. Pollination allows the plants to produce seeds.

As Connecticut's forests increase, so does pollen. It comes in waves, with maples, junipers, and cedars spreading their pollen early, followed by other hardwoods and evergreens, and finishing on a high note with oaks. Some people are allergic to pollen from one species. Others sneeze with every wave.

The amount of pollen can vary from year to year, depending on the weather. The groundwork is laid in the previous seasons. If it's a very dry summer and fall, trees won't produce a lot of pollen the next year.

"If we get a really cold winter, the cold can damage the buds and reduce pollen,'' said Jeffrey Ward , forester with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven.

Ward said some trees. like maples, produce pollen on a two-year cycle, heavy one year and light the next. This year, Ward said, seems to be a light one. "I'm not seeing as many maple buds in the forest as I have,'' he said. "I'm allergic to maples.''

A cold, wet spring also can keep pollen at bay, regularly washing it out of the air. Warm, still, spring days can mean misery for allergy sufferers. May can the cruelest month, mixing pollens from trees and grasses.

The summer of 2005, Ward said, had a prolonged dry spell that put stress on many trees, meaning they may not put out as much pollen this year. But the state had a very wet fall, helping trees recover, then a relatively mild winter.

"The aspens and cottonwoods haven't started to bud yet,'' Ward said. "I don't know what kind of pollen season we'll have. To me, it looks like it will be an average year.''

But as Santilli points out, for someone with allergies, an average tree pollen spring is a bad one.

Allergists said people with tree pollen allergies should have started a course of medication two or three weeks ago to be prepared for the days of breathing microscopic plant dust ahead.

Most allergy patients can fight the good fight be using a mix of antihistamines and prescription nasal sprays. Lee, the Danbury allergist, said the sprays, which contain an anti-inflammatory steroid, have proven increasingly effective.

One study compared 100 antihistamine users to 100 people who used nasal sprays. Seventy-three percent of the antihistamine group showed noticeable allergic reactions. The nasal spray group had only 22 members with those symptoms, Lee said.

On bad days, pollen sufferers should seek the protection of air-conditioning as much as possible.

"They should wash their hair before they go to bed,'' said Santilli, of St. Vincent's. "Otherwise, they're laying their heads down on their pillows and breathing in a lot of pollen.''

Contact Robert Miller


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