Live Trees May Bring Home More Than Holiday Cheer

Main Category: Allergy
Also Included In: Preventive Medicine;  Public Health
Article Date: 24 Oct 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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It's just like something you'd see in an old movie heading off into the hills with the kids to cut down a Christmas tree to bring home. But doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say if you choose the wrong tree, you could make the holiday season miserable.

About one in ten people are allergic to mountain cedar pollen, and these trees release their pollen just at the time you'd be bringing them indoors to decorate. If someone in your home is allergic to mountain cedar pollen, they're in for weeks of sneezing and sniffling.

Fortunately, this is only a real risk for people who like to go out into the wild and cut their own trees. The Scotch pines and Douglas firs you find at most Christmas tree lots or cut-it-yourself Christmas tree farms don't pollinate during the winter.

But Dr. Dave Khan, a UT Southwestern allergy expert, says you may still have some allergy issues. Anything brought in from outdoors is likely to bring mold spores with it. A lot of people are allergic to mold. You can have a live tree treated with fungicide to kill off the mold spores.

If you have allergy sufferers in your family, Dr. Khan says an artificial tree may be your best bet.

Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center