DC Metro to San Diego...Allergies a problem at all in San Diego? (living, military)

[bargainhigh]

Hello,

We currently live in the DC Metro area and are thinking about a possible move to San Diego.

We currently have a 6 year old year round on Asthma medications related to allergies. He is always coughing, and most often will get bronchitis or Pneumonia at least once if not twice a year.

Wondering how the air quality is in San Diego as well as if allergies are a problem for anyone in the area?

Our son's health has gotten to be a concern for us and will be one of the top reasons for our move. Not to mention our love of the sunshine and ocean :-)

Thanks for any advice!

[MAK802]

We moved here from NJ a little over 2 years ago. My husband also has asthma due to his allergies and was hoping living here would be better. It's the exact opposite. He travels to the East coast for work and that's about the only time he can breathe. He used to use one inhaler every 6 months or so and is going through 2/month since moving here. He has bronchitis all the time it seems and just a really hard time breathing and coughs all day long, it's ridiculous. His health has definitely declined since moving here, so if that is your main reason for moving, San Diego is not that place.

We travel pretty frequently and he's fine without his inhaler everywhere it seems except when we get back to San Diego. Whatever is in the air here is making his asthma and allergies 1000x worse.

[cruitr]

I used to get bronchitis all the time before I moved here. Haven't had it once in the 6 years that I've been here. I live and work on the coast. The cool ocean air seems to help me.

[Jenkay]

Originally Posted by bargainhigh

Hello,

We currently live in the DC Metro area and are thinking about a possible move to San Diego.

We currently have a 6 year old year round on Asthma medications related to allergies. He is always coughing, and most often will get bronchitis or Pneumonia at least once if not twice a year.

Wondering how the air quality is in San Diego as well as if allergies are a problem for anyone in the area?

Our son's health has gotten to be a concern for us and will be one of the top reasons for our move. Not to mention our love of the sunshine and ocean :-)

Thanks for any advice!

It totally depends on what you're allergic to. I had a friend that moved up to Washington state and had such bad allergies she sounded like she had bronchitis every spring/summer, but when she moved back here she was fine.

Conversely, my aunt came to live out here for a few years and her allergies were horrible, but when she moved back East she was fine.

I'm not allergic to anything, so I don't have a bead on exactly which allergies are worse where, but I'm sure with a little research you could find out.

[loveautumn]

We do have smog and times when air quality is poor. If you live here awhile you get used to it so you don't really notice it but it is there. We have plenty of things to be allergic to out here. Lots of mold issues, IMO.

I was told once that when you move to a new area that your allergies will seem to get better for awhile (maybe even a few years) but then your body adjusts and starts to react to the local allergens. I'd guess that it's probably better to move to a dry area, like Phoenix or a desert city, but you'd need to research that. If you look up allergy physicians, there are plenty of them in San Diego.

[Oerdin]

I grew up in San Diego and never had any allergies but when I went to the east coast for military training when I was younger I found I had terrible allergies to all sorts of stuff. I moved back to San Diego and once again was allergy free. I suspect our bodies "normalize" themselves when we are young; meaning it figures out what it thinks is normal and reacts based upon that so if you live where you grew up largely you won't have allergies in that area but if you move to a new area then suddenly your immune system might go into over drive because it doesn't recognize all these new pollens and mold spores.

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by loveautumn

We do have smog and times when air quality is poor.

That's exceedingly rare and instead what we mostly have is a marine layer which looks hazy and which people who do not know better assume is smog. It is in fact a natural effect caused by living near an ocean with the temperature and pressure conditions found in the San Diego area. Haz /= smog

[Desertdarlene]

I agree with Jenkay, it depends on what you're allergic to. I didn't have much asthma problems until I had been here several months. You can develop new allergies no matter where you moved. My asthma and allergies were just as bad here as it was back east.

[kettlepot]

I guess what we can take away from the responses is that everyone's situation is different.

In San Diego, your dust is gray from smog. In DC the dust is green from pollen.

In DC (an area I moved to as an adult) my allergies were horrible. In the Central Valley where I grew up, my allergies were horrible. In San Diego my allergies are not horrible. Instead of getting a weeks on end onslaught of allergies, I get 3-5 days and they go away for awhile. They then come back when something new and evil begins to bloom.

[kguru]

Some of the scrub vegetation in San Diego can cause respiratory irritation. The areas closer to the coast will generally have the best air quality, though there will be some mold issues. The inland areas sometimes are a bit smoggy when the pollution from the coast gets trapped in the hills and valleys, especially in the eastern parts of the urban area.