My grass allergies were so bad the other night, I was up until two in the morning sneezing nonstop for five hours, to the point where I thought I had to go to the emergency room. All this despite being on three-dollar-a-day prescription allergy medicine.
In Eugene, we have the highest grass seed pollen count in the world, thanks to Linn County’s (“Grass Seed Capital of the World”) grass seed growers. While health hazards from grass field burning are finally in the public’s watering, bloodshot eye, why are we not addressing the misery of allergy sufferers that comes from simply growing the grass seed in the first place?
I propose that grass seed growers be held accountable for covering the costs of every allergy sufferer in the Willamette Valley. I, myself, will be sending copies of my allergy medicine receipts, along with a letter asking for financial reimbursement, to the industry lobby group Oregon Grass Seed Council, at 1193 Royvonne Ave. S., Suite 11, Salem, OR 97302. I encourage all other allergy sufferers to do the same.
Come to think of it, with all this recent talk of “sustainability,” why are we still wasting water, fossil fuels and topsoil to grow hundreds of thousands of acres of grass seed for ornamental lawns instead of the crops we need to feed ourselves?
Michelle D’Amico
Eugene resident
Grass seed growers should pay allergy expenses
Daily Emerald
June 10, 2007
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