Health care notes BANGOR: EMMC ALLERGY INDEX ONLINE

Most of us breathe a sigh of relief when the days turn balmy and the plant world begins to green up. But for many allergy sufferers, the end of winter heralds the beginning of a long, wheezy season of watery eyes, drippy noses and stupefying congestion. Airborne molds and pollen from trees, grass and other plants can trigger warm-weather allergic reactions of varying degrees, typically made worse by wind and humidity. To determine what trees make you sneeze, visit the online allergy index provided by Eastern Maine Medical Center at www.allergy.emmc.org. it has information, updated three times a week, about which pollens and molds are prevalent in the Bangor area. On Friday, it was a red-eye cocktail of poplar and alder, with a touch of maple and cedar thrown in. Exotic-sounding molds – drechslera, ascospores, cladosporium, altenaria – were circulating as well.