It seems like the worst allergy season this year.  People dealing with watery eyes and a scratchy throat. People have been blaming the pollen in the area, but actually pollen levels have been fairly low this season.

The culprit for these allergy type symptoms has actually been from the wildfires to the North of us in Canada.  The air quality in Minnesota has been poor for the last few weeks.  Depending on the wind direction, the air quality can even be considered as unhealthy.  This mostly will affect people with breathing issues such as asthma, elderly individuals and kids.  Most everyone will notice some watering of the eyes and feel like you have a scratchy throat.

It's not to say that you might be experiencing some allergy issues, but it's most likely the air quality.  The best thing to do is not to reach for the allergy meds, but instead, just stay inside.

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Speaking with CBS, an allergist, Gary Berman says that the best way to find out if it's allergies or just poor air quality is to take an allergy scratch test.

“For the general population, it’s probably mostly an irritant, but for our patients with asthma or COPD or cardiovascular problems, when they have breathing problems, this can make things much worse,”

This kind of poor air quality is something fairly new to Minnesotans.  It's something that people on the West coast deal with almost every summer because of the wild fires.  This is also probably the most likely reason that the first thought is allergies and not poor air quality. It's not top of mind in Minnesota.

Hopefully these fires will be contained and put out soon.  It's been devastating.

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