STOP! Are you smelling the roses?

Springtime is here, which means it’s time for sunshine, flowers, and allergy symptoms like itchy eyes, stuffy noses, and dry throats which get in the way of enjoying a perfectly good spring day. Anyone who has allergies will know that they can make going outside quite a hassle, and statistically a large chunk of the population does; Pollen and nasal allergies are incredibly common, affecting roughly 50 million adults in the United States alone, and (when including asthma) make up for the fifth largest chronic disease in the States, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. In fact, in 2012, over 20 million people of varying ages suffered from hay fever, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Recently, outdoor allergies particularly related to pollen have been getting worse, too, according to National Geographic. In a more extreme case, Chattanooga, Tennessee recently saw something similar to a snowstorm made of pollen last week. The pollen index, which is already measured as being extremely high at 120, reached a whopping 1926. This caused incredible allergic reactions to many members of the community as pollen was so thick that it coated cars in layers of yellow dust. Though most of the world is not experiencing a rise in pollen to the same magnitude, it should be noted that there has been an incremental increase for most.