Spring is here, but you may have mixed feelings about it. While the weather is delightful and your garden is blooming, your allergies might render you a sneezing, red, drippy mess. Your only solace rests in antihistamines and you keep a box of tissues on you at all times. However, your suffering might not be as inevitable as you think. Allergies are most obviously present as a result of the build-up of pollen outside, but some products that you use inside your home on a regular basis could be making your allergies much worse or prolonging them far past the allergy season. Using these products on a limited basis or swapping them out for more allergy-friendly products could be the difference between enjoying the months between March and May and living with a persistent, mucous-filled throat.
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Aerosol Spray Cleaners
You might think that your aerosol spray cleaners are helping you eradicate the dust that has been building up, creating indoor allergies. Yet, in reality, aerosol spray cleaners can worsen your allergies tenfold. So while you may be eliminating one allergen, you’re inviting another potentially far more aggravating allergen into your home. When used on a weekly basis, which is about the amount of time it takes for dust to accumulate in the home, cleaning sprays worsen allergies and may cause asthma attacks. Without a pre-existing asthma condition, you may develop the need for asthma medication as a result of cleaning sprays. These aerosol cans also cause wheezing. Over time, the risks could be greater, so to help alleviate the problem whilst keeping a clean house, dusting should be done with the use of a dust cloth, with a cleaning aid dispensed, without the use of aerosol, and with minimal odor to it. Your home will sparkle and your allergies will be kept at bay.
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Air Fresheners
According to a study administered by the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Boston, air fresheners are trigger products for allergies. They aggravate existing allergy symptoms and worsen asthma. While you may turn to a Glade plug-in for help keeping your home smelling fresh, it may not be worth the sneezing and itchy, watery eyes. An estimated 20% of the populous and 34% of those with asthma have reported the jeopardizing effects of air fresheners toward their allergies and general health. Air fresheners contain volatile organic compounds, also known as VOCs, which trigger allergy symptoms or asthma. In air fresheners, the VOCs might be formaldehyde and petroleum distillates, for example. At a higher concentration, these VOCs can have much more serious effects such as respiratory tract irritation and headaches. Your memory retention may even be compromised. Your supposedly harmless air freshener can contain up to 20 different VOCs.
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Packaging Around Electronics
Volatile organic compounds are not just present in air fresheners, unfortunately. They also come in office supplies that we use regularly, such as our computers, fax machines, and phones. VOCs “off-gas” from these products, meaning they evaporate into the air. In the case of air fresheners, this off-gassing is instantaneous when you dispense the spray. However, in computers and other electronics, the VOCs off-gas in more of a slow leak. So your allergies may worsen over time simply because of the new television you got. When you first purchase electronics that emit VOCs, opening them in a well-ventilated area or outside is preferable, as the packaging around them contains higher concentrations of VOCs. You may also let them sit in a garage or other outdoor area for a few days before bringing them inside the house to let some of the fumes disperse.
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Extended-wear Contact Lenses
Extended-wear contact lenses can make allergies worse because pollen, dust, and mold spores can cling to the lenses. Leaving contact lenses in for a while may seem convenient, but it also gives your eyes more time to collect foreign particles, and you may not even realize the contacts are the culprit. To prevent this from happening, you can switch to single-use lenses that must be swapped out daily or hard lenses that the allergens tend not to stick to. If your lenses are still irritating your eyes, investing in some good eye drops is helpful. Veramyst and Nasonex are medications that alleviate eye allergies by reducing inflammation of the circuitry between your eyes and your nose.
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Cosmetics
While they may not directly cause seasonal allergies, developing allergies to cosmetics is common, and it will simply aggravate any existing seasonal allergies that you might already have. Allergic reactions to your cosmetics can develop suddenly out of nowhere, and sometimes disappear spontaneously after several breakouts. If, after applying makeup, you notice the skin around your eyes becoming puffy and swollen or your eyes itching, you may have developed such a sensitivity. As all cosmetics contain the same general ingredients — waxes, oils, detergents, dyes, perfumes, lanolin, and preservatives — the sensitive, thin skin around your eyes may detect them as a foreign substance and have an allergic reaction to the product. You may have been building up an aversion to the product for some time, your reaction worsening after each use. To prevent any further issues, discontinue using the product causing the reaction or switch to hypoallergenic makeup.
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Hair Dyes
ParaPhenyleneDiamine and peroxide are chemicals found in hair dyes. While only 5% of the population develops allergies to these combined chemicals leading to serious reactions, the chemicals in hair dye will aggravate anyone’s allergies. If you’ve ever mixed hair dye, you’re all too familiar with the scent, which is strong and cough-inducing. Always mix hair dye in a well-ventilated area and possibly wear a mask over your mouth to prevent inhaling toxic fumes. For those who do suffer from a serious allergic reaction to hair dye, dermatitis is the most common symptom, followed by urticaria, which causes blood plasma to leak into the skin. Anaphylactic shock can even occur, followed by death. To ensure that you’re not one of these rare cases, always administer a “patch test” before dying your hair. This can be done by dabbing a small amount of the dye mixture behind your ear where the skin is sensitive and waiting 48-72 hours to examine the results. If your skin becomes overly irritated, do not use the product on the rest of your scalp.
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Bath Mats
If you step out of the shower every day and drip dry onto a bath mat, it could be harvesting a great deal of allergy-inducing mold and dust mites. Bath mats, when used repeatedly, can trap moisture in the fibers and never fully dry out. Given that most of them have rubber backing, people forget that they need to be cleaned just as often as regular laundry. Likewise, if you shower with the bathroom door closed, the humidity caused by the steam will add to the moisture in the bath mat. Washing a bath mat once a week in hot water, followed by hanging it to dry, could make a world of difference for your allergies. Likewise, if you dry out the bath mat after use by hanging it in a dry place, it will not collect as much moisture and mold.
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