Harsh allergy season expected
■ With spring coming up
quickly, allergy sufferers
can take steps to minimize
their pollen exposure
By Jessica Blanchard
Oregon Daily Emerald
While many students are cele
brating the recent warm weather
and sunshine, others are dread
ing the early arrival of the spring
allergy season.
For many seasonal allergy suf
ferers, sunny weather brings
sneezing, a runny nose and wa
tery, itchy eyes.
“When you’ve been cooped up
in the house all season, and
when the rain finally stops, peo
ple want to come out and enjoy
it,” said Judy Moran, a registered
nurse with Allergy and Asthma
Associates in Eugene. “But often,
they can’t because their allergies
kick in.”
How tough this year’s allergy
season will be on sufferers de
pends on Mother Nature, said Dr.
Kraig Jacobson, a physician at Al
lergy and Asthma Associates.
“It has all the makings of being
a vigorous season,” Jacobson
said. “With the warm, wet winter
we’ve been having, we would
think that the sprout would be
very high.”
Eugene residents allergic to
grass pollen are particularly un
lucky: Oregon is one of the top
producers of grass seed in the
world. When the prevailing
winds are from the Northeast, the
Willamette Valley acts as a fun
nel, blowing the grass pollen
straight through Eugene, said
University Health Center Direc
tor Dr. Gerald Fleischli.
Rain, however, helps clear
common pollens — such as tree
pollens and mixed weed pollens
— out of the air. As a result, Fleis
chli said the severity of the aller
gy season depends largely on the
weather.
“The season typically starts in
mid-May and runs through the
fourth of July,” Fleischli said.
“But because of the warm weath
er, we’ve already been seeing
some people experiencing aller
gy symptoms.”
Allergies can also develop un
expectedly, Moran said. There is
no specific age group that is more
susceptible to allergies, she said,
and she sees people in the aller
gy clinic from age 5 to 55.
People already have a genetic
tendency to become allergic, but
it’s a total variable as to when
they’ll develop clinical symp
toms, she said.
“I hear a lot of, ‘When I first
moved here, I didn’t have an al
lergy,’” she said. “But they can
develop a sensitivity to certain
allergens. You can really develop
an allergy at any time.”
When the allergy season really
starts to kick up, many students
find themselves unable to study
or concentrate in school, Moran
said.
On-line travel sites lure
students wanting deals
■ On-line travel is the
largest retail e-commerce
category, projected to grow
to $30 billion by 2001
By Brian Goodell
Oregon Daily Emerald
With spring break just around
the corner and the announcement
on Wednesday regarding the Pre
view Travel and Travelocity.com
merger, students looking to book
travel in the 21st century are fac
ing an increasing dilemma —
click or brick.
The creation of the new Preview
Travel/Travelocity conglomerate
is turning the classic brick-and
mortar operation into a do-it
yourself, click-and-save empire.
According to Computer Shopper
Magazine, the on-line travel mar
ket is the largest retail e-com
merce category, projected to grow
from $7 billion in 1999 to $30 bil
lion by the end of this year. By
2003,26 million American house
holds are expected to book their
travel on-line, and 16 million will
plan their trips via the Internet.
“There’s so much information
out there that it’s easy to get lost,”
Travelocity.com spokeswoman
Jacque Rardin said. “We have the
tools in place to help weed
through all the information that’s
out there, so people know that
what they’re looking at are the
lowest fares on the web.”
• Rardin said on-line booking is
not necessarily better for student
travelers but said the Internet en
ables people to quickly and con
veniently locate the travel pack
ages that are important to them.
Council Travel, located on East
13th Avenue and in the EMU, also
offers an on-line travel service for
students. Niraj Shah, who works
in e-commerce support at the
Council Travel headquarters in
New York, said the site gets nearly
a half million hits per month,
with an average of 16,000 to
17,000 visits per day.
As popular as the site is, Kim
Henry, manager of the 13th street
office, says on-line booking is not
necessarily the best way to go.
“The benefit of going into a travel
agency is that an agent will tell
you that if you adjust your travel
dates, you can probably get a low
er fare,” Henry said. “Also, a lot of
people are not comfortable with
giving away their credit card
number over the Internet.”
Nevertheless, students are jump
ing on the bandwagon. Scott Rich,
a graduate student and Greek Life
Advisor, said he travels about 16
times a year, and he enjoys the
discounts and the convenience of
on-linebooking.
“If I want to book on-line at 10
p.m., I can. Whereas my travel
agent might not be at work at that
time,” Rich said. “A lot of times
you can get discounted airfares
and special deals on the Internet
that you can’t get anywhere else.”
Rena Adelstein, a senior major
ing in public relations, said her
best bet for low airfares is on the
Alaska Airlines Web site. As a fre
quent flier, Adelstein said she was
able to save the most money by
booking direct, rather than going
through a travel agent.
Adelstein said there are some
downsides to making travel plans
on the Internet, however.
“There’s no one you can talk to
and ask questions of,” Adelstein
said. “If you want to switch flights
or book a different time, it’s hard
to do that on a computer.”
Reducing symptoms:
• Wear sunglasses or eyeglasses to
block pollen from eyes.
• Shower at night and shampoo
hair to remove pollen.
• Wash bed linens often—espe
cially the pillowcases.
• Don’t allow your pet to sleep
with you.
• Use a pollen mask.
• Damp dust your room.
SOURCE: University Health Center
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