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Re: plant sampling/allergies

As a physician, and not an attorney, I can tell you that
many things in the environment, including the workplace, can 
cause real allergies, as well as imagined ones.  Many people
who claim to have allergies, just have a vasomotor rhinits.
Some even develop asthmatic type symptoms, that are unrelated
to specific environmental allergens. Exercise-induced asthma
is a very good example of this phenomena.  Allergy testing
is very expensive and occasionally may point to a specific
allergen (i.e. tree or grass pollen, dust mites, etc).
The usual treatment is with avoidance of the allergen and/
or antihistamines.  In this era of cost containment, the usual
treatment is with antihistamines with referal for allergy testing 
in only the most severe or disabling conditions. 

In your case, there may well be a plant in your garden that has 
caused an allergy, but it must have produced a pollen for an allergen 
to have formed.  There also should be some temporal relationship between 
the pollen formation and your neighbor's alleged symptoms.  Another form
of allergy would be from physically touching or brushing against the plants.
Don't forget that these symptoms may be mimicked in people with a variety of
psychosomatic disorders.

Now, from your perspective, I don't think that your neighbor
can just waltz into your garden and test your plants without your
permission.  That would be trespassing and possibly vandalism!!  
And I don't think that the "law" will force you to accomodate to her 
allergy testing if you  don't want her on your property. I think that you need
to talk to your neighbor (to try to ascertain when the
allergies developed) in a non-threatening, non-confrontational manner.  
If, however, she becomes hostile, I would talk to an attorney
before pursuing the matter further.


Anthony Gal
agal@emory.edu



At 09:12 AM 6/17/97 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Hi,
>
>I planted a new perennial border this spring and my neighbour just
>informed me that she is extremely allergic to something we are growing.
>She has 'someone' coming today to take a sample of each plant and do some
>testing to find out what she is allergic to.  Does anyone know what's
>involved in this and if it will harm the plants?  I'm not sure what she
>expects me to do if she finds one of my beautiful plants to be the
>culprit.  I guess I'll deal with that later (maybe if she gets rid of her
>monster of a dog and her cat who eats my herbs we can work out a deal
><grin>)
>
>Thanks for any info.
>Liane
>zone 6
>
>          /*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\
>          *  LIANE MIDDLETON         e-mail: lmiddlet@becon.org *
>          \*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/
>
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