Dear Fellow Allergy Sufferers,

This month we focus on important topics concerning fall allergy survival and maintaining your HVAC system.

If you are like me, the ragweed is bothering you and causing your allergy symptoms to flare up. My lawn is becoming buried by increased falling foliage, and I am pleasantly noting the temperatures outside are not quite as hot. Fall is just around the corner. For many homeowners, a change of season signals that it is time to change their HVAC filters. At our home and in our offices, we change our furnace filters monthly, and we are always surprised to see how much dirt and dust they have accumulated. We go one step further and vacuum our air intake grates, because they become very dirty but are often ignored. As the college football season has just kicked off, take a few minutes during halftime or a break from raking leaves and change your HVAC filter. For many of our customers this is the only thing in the house that is "cleaning" the air.

This topic reminds me of a funny story. I have a good friend who purchased a home almost ten years ago. I laugh remembering how he did not even know he had a furnace filter, much less that he needed to change it. When we went down to his basement and found it, the filter easily could qualify as an award winning science experiment. It was BLACK, completely covered in filth, and nearly impermeable to air trying to pass through it. Even more disgusting, it had several deceased insects embedded in it. I hope reading the previous sentence spurs you to take action and change your furnace filter now!

On a slightly different note, I am ecstatic to report that last month our website had a record number of unique visitors, over 83,000. That is almost 1 million visitors on an annualized basis! It is my hope that each of these visitors took away a little knowledge on how to better manage their allergies, asthma and sinus problems. Thank you all for your continued support! The allergy epidemic remains on the rise worldwide, but we can overcome this disease through awareness, education, environmental control, and allergen avoidance.

Breathe Better,

P. Cade McDonald
Editor-in-Chief
Allergy Consumer Report
achooallergy.com