SALT LAKE CITY — Your runny nose and red eyes are not deceiving you. When it comes to allergies, Utah might be at the epicenter of the seasonal annoyances.
Utah dominates the new list of "Worst Places for Seasonal Allergies," with three cities featured in the upper half of the newest rankings shared by Healthline.
Provo is the state's worst offender, coming in at No. 4 overall, with Ogden (No. 8) and Salt Lake City (No. 13) right behind. Utah was the only state to feature more than two cities among the Top 20.
The rankings were created by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) to show the areas where it is most difficult to live with pollen allergies. The rankings were determined based on "pollen scores for tree, grass, and weed pollen, over-the-counter allergy medication use, and the number of allergy specialists."
All 3 Utah cities stood out with worse-than-average pollen scores.
“People naturally spend more time outdoors, in nature, and other areas where increased heat and humidity, greater prevalence of allergens, and therefore exposure to triggers, and compromised air quality are more common," Noah Greenspan, PT, DPT told Healthline. "In addition, we can expect that the impact of various environmental triggers will vary by geographic location and the characteristics of the exposures.”
TOP 20 WORST U.S. CITIES FOR ALLERGIES:
1. Boise, ID
2. San Diego, CA
3. Tulsa, OK
4. PROVO
5. Rochester, NY
6. Wichita, KS
7, Raleigh, NC
8. OGDEN
9. Spokane, WA
10. Greenville, SC
11. San Francisco, CA
12. Minneapolis, MN
13. SALT LAKE CITY
14. Richmond, VA
15. Colorado Springs, CO
16. Little Rock, AR
17. Toledo, OJ
18. New Orleans, LA
19. Winston-Salem, NC
20. Lakeland, FL
