Will Carnations Bother People With Breathing Problems?

Allergies to Flowering Plants

• Most allergies to plants come from those that are wind pollinated such as grasses and dioecious trees. Dioecious usually don't have showy flowers and their pollen is produced on male trees and seeds are produced on female trees. Grasses and dioecious trees have relatively small pollen grains and rely on wind for pollination. Plants with showy flowers such as carnations and many of the flowers used in floral arrangements tend to have larger pollen grains that are sticky. These larger sticky pollen grains don't stay suspended in the air for long and thus are less likely to be inhaled.

Occupational Exposure

• Some people who work in the floral industry such as those who harvest flowers, pack them for shipping or even florists have developed allergy symptoms after working around flowers commonly used in the florist industry. Sanchez-Guerrero and colleagues performed skin prick tests of carnation serum on patients complaining of allergy symptoms after extended periods of time working around carnations and found that these people had indeed developed an occupation allergy. Their findings were reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 1999.

Non-Allergic Rhinitis

• People who have chronic breathing problems may have a different problem than an allergy called non-allergic rhinitis. Non-allergic rhinitis tends to develop in people over the age of 20 and can be stimulated by a number of factors such as stress, certain odors, weather changes, chronic health problems, overuse of nasal decongestant sprays and many other environmental factors. Carnations do have a strong spicy scent that may irritate some people and could cause them to have non-allergic rhinitis. The difference between allergic rhinitis and non-allergic rhinitis is that the body makes antigens in response to exposure to allergens. Doctors treat allergies and non-allergic rhinitis very differently. If you suspect you have an allergy to carnations it is best to see an allergist. In the meantime avoid carnations if they make you uncomfortable.

Avoiding Breathing Problems

• Unless you or someone you someone you know works constantly with carnations, there is no reason to avoid floral arrangements with carnations. Someone who works frequently with carnations and notices they are having trouble breathing around them should arrange to see an allergist to determine if carnations are causing them distress or if there is some other problem. The rhinitis symptoms you may be experiencing may not be the result of an allergen at all but non-allergic rhinitis. Finding out what you are truly allergic to will help determine an appropriate treatment plan so that you can either avoid carnations or take medication that will help restore normal breathing.