2008 Woodie Awards
Allergy sufferer suggests white boards
Amy Cookson
Issue date: 9/30/04 Section: Op/Ed
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Last Monday, I spent a sizeable portion of my day in the Health Center and a local eye doctor's office. I was informed that the burning, stinging sensation in my eye was a symptom of "acute allergies."
This past summer my mother and I determined that my primary allergens are pet hair and dust, and that my allergies are further aggravated by the weather. Apparently, this part of Pennsylvania would have been more appropriately named "Allergy Valley" than Lehigh Valley.
About.com revealed the following: "An allergy is an abnormally high sensitivity reaction to an ordinarily harmless substance. The immune system of an allergic person reacts when an allergen is absorbed into their body, [by] treating the substance as a harmful invader...When this occurs it causes the body to release histamine, which can cause allergy symptoms such as watery eyes, itching, sneezing or a runny nose." This explains why other people may simply sneeze, or not even notice the dust, while my eyes burn and water.
The best way to prevent allergies from acting up is to avoid the allergens. This is difficult when you are bothered by dust, as I am. I can't avoid classrooms on a daily basis because the chalkboards bother me. Nor can I completely avoid Parents' Plaza, Land of the Smokers, or as I have come to know it, Hell at Noon; cigarette smoke can aggravate allergies, and I have never had a high tolerance for smoke.
However, as I sat in class warily eyeing the chalk dust around me, I thought of a high school classmate who was asthmatic and had a number of severe allergies. I'm sure there were several reasons my school switched from chalkboards to dry-erase whiteboards, but I've no doubt my classmate was at the top of the list. We couldn't eliminate all dust from our school, but we could eliminate the chalk dust.
Since I now find myself in a similar situation, I wonder why Muhlenberg classrooms contain chalkboards rather than whiteboards. Richard Begbie, the Assistant Director of Plant Operations, explained that blackboards have been around forever and that some faculty request blackboards. He mentioned the science departments in particular prefer blackboards. He explained that although there is not a big difference in price between a blackboard and a premium whiteboard, whiteboards do not hold up as long as blackboards. Whiteboards can be harder to clean than chalkboards, especially if people use permanent markers rather than dry erase markers on the boards.
This past summer my mother and I determined that my primary allergens are pet hair and dust, and that my allergies are further aggravated by the weather. Apparently, this part of Pennsylvania would have been more appropriately named "Allergy Valley" than Lehigh Valley.
About.com revealed the following: "An allergy is an abnormally high sensitivity reaction to an ordinarily harmless substance. The immune system of an allergic person reacts when an allergen is absorbed into their body, [by] treating the substance as a harmful invader...When this occurs it causes the body to release histamine, which can cause allergy symptoms such as watery eyes, itching, sneezing or a runny nose." This explains why other people may simply sneeze, or not even notice the dust, while my eyes burn and water.
The best way to prevent allergies from acting up is to avoid the allergens. This is difficult when you are bothered by dust, as I am. I can't avoid classrooms on a daily basis because the chalkboards bother me. Nor can I completely avoid Parents' Plaza, Land of the Smokers, or as I have come to know it, Hell at Noon; cigarette smoke can aggravate allergies, and I have never had a high tolerance for smoke.
However, as I sat in class warily eyeing the chalk dust around me, I thought of a high school classmate who was asthmatic and had a number of severe allergies. I'm sure there were several reasons my school switched from chalkboards to dry-erase whiteboards, but I've no doubt my classmate was at the top of the list. We couldn't eliminate all dust from our school, but we could eliminate the chalk dust.
Since I now find myself in a similar situation, I wonder why Muhlenberg classrooms contain chalkboards rather than whiteboards. Richard Begbie, the Assistant Director of Plant Operations, explained that blackboards have been around forever and that some faculty request blackboards. He mentioned the science departments in particular prefer blackboards. He explained that although there is not a big difference in price between a blackboard and a premium whiteboard, whiteboards do not hold up as long as blackboards. Whiteboards can be harder to clean than chalkboards, especially if people use permanent markers rather than dry erase markers on the boards.