This year the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of American ranked Salt Lake City the 85th worst city for allergies, promoting it from 96th in the previous year…
This much, this statisitic, thankfully, I can know… I like facts… I think I, or maybe we all have a little Rain Man in us… I like knowing that Dwight Gooden set the major league record for strikeouts by a rookie in 1984 with 246 Ks, that he finished the ‘84 season with 276 strikeouts, leading the National League. I like that after a two year absence from baseball, he came back and pitched a no-hitter… what’s harder to figure out is his cocaine addiction… or, “figure out”?... his addiction's also a fact—a sad one... albeit sometimes more sad than others, Exhibit 1: Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, Season 5—but a different sort of fact; a fact without a resolution.
Residents of Salt Lake, along with those of the whole of the southwest, used to not have allergies… starting around the 1870s, some would even relocate to the area to escape the East coast’s allergen haven.
Leaving their homes was difficult emotionally and, to help a little, they began to re-scape the their yards and parks with trees and plants from back east. Of course, as we can easily understand now, acting on this nostalgia for home also brought back the allergens of their former homes.
Anyone who's allergic to, say, cats, certainly knows not all allergens come from plants… According to Heather May’s article in the SL Trib:
The Utah County Health Department — which has some of the state’s lowest asthma hospitalization rates — is taking the message that a clean home is a healthy home to everyone, particularly the Latino population. Studies have shown some ethnic minorities have more difficulties with asthma due to genetics and home environment.
- Heather May, Salt Lake Tribune, March 2011
And, this is a third category of facts… ones that appear to have a clear resolution when they don’t.
