York, PA – The Department of Environmental Protection and its regional air quality partnerships have forecast an air quality action day for Wednesday in York County and elsewhere.

The designation means young children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems, such as asthma, emphysema and bronchitis, are especially vulnerable to the effects of air pollution and should limit outdoor activities, according to a DEP news release.

The air quality forecast predicts Wednesday to be code orange for ozone in the Susquehanna Valley, Pittsburgh, Liberty/Clairton, Lehigh Valley/Berks and Philadelphia regions.

The Susquehanna Valley region includes York, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster and Lebanon counties.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standardized air quality index uses colors to report daily air quality. Orange represents unhealthy pollution levels for sensitive people. Ground-level ozone, a key component of smog, forms during warm weather when pollution from vehicles, industry, households and power plants “bakes” in the hot sun, making it hard for some people to breathe, the news release states.

Particles can get deep into the lungs and cause significant health problems. it has been determined to be most closely associated with health effects related to increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits for heart and lung disease, increased respiratory symptoms and disease, and decreased lung function.

To help keep the air healthy, residents and businesses are encouraged to voluntarily limit certain pollution-producing activities by taking the following steps:

* Ride the bus or carpool to work;

* Wash dishes and clothes only with full loads; and

* Save energy by turning off unused lights in your home.

These forecasts are provided in conjunction with the Air Quality Partnership of the Delaware Valley, the Southwest Pennsylvania Air Quality Partnership, the Lehigh Valley/Berks Air Quality Partnership and the Susquehanna Valley Air Quality Partnership.

For more information, visit depweb.state.pa.us, keyword: Air Quality Partnership.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) – the spring allergy season has struck Alabama early, and people across the Birmingham metro area are already complaining about itchy eyes and runny noses.Tree pollen levels are already high and trees are starting to bloom across the area. Allergists say this typically starts in March, but it's happening a few weeks ahead of schedule due to the recent warm weather. as a result, people are starting to flood doctor's offices at the Alabama Allergy and Asthma Center looking for relief.”Especially with trees, eye symptoms tend to be prominent,” said Dr. Kay Knight at the Alabama Allergy and Asthma Center. “We're seeing itchy, watery eyes, nasal congestion, throat drainage.  those types of things are common from tree pollen.”Dr. Knight said there are simple things you can do to get some relief.  try to avoid spending time outdoors, and if you do, shower and change you clothes afterwards, keep windows to your house closed, and take an over the counter antihistamine if you start to feel bad.  she said while the season may be starting early, it is still difficult to tell if this will be an especially bad year for allergies.”A lot of it will depend on rainfall patterns,” said Dr. Knight, “If we stay warm,  it could be a long and exasperating pollen season.”Copyright 2011 WBRC. All rights reserved.

By Madonna BehenHealthDay Reporter Latest Neurology News

THURSDAY, Feb. 17 (HealthDay News) — People with multiple sclerosis may have more problems remembering, learning and processing information in warm weather than in cooler months, a small study suggests.

Researchers at the Kessler Foundation in West Orange, N.J., found that patients with MS performed 70 percent better on tests involving thinking, or cognitive functioning, on cooler days than they did at warmer times of the year.

“These findings are important because in many cases, cognitive changes take a greater psychological toll on MS patients than changes in motor symptoms do,” said the study’s lead author, Victoria Leavitt, a neuropsychologist and post-doctoral fellow at the Kessler Foundation Research Center.

“People who have MS often leave the workforce before their motor symptoms emerge, and the reason they’ll often give is fatigue,” said Leavitt. “But it’s possible that it may be related to these changes in cognition, which are requiring them to use their brains in a different way.”

The findings, released Feb. 17, are scheduled to be presented in April at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Honolulu.

For the study, 40 people with MS and 40 without the nervous system disease took the same cognitive tests at different times throughout the calendar year. the researchers recorded the temperature on each day that the patients were tested. while the MS patients performed better on these tests on cooler days, there was no difference in the test results of the healthy controls.

The reason why temperature changes might affect MS patients’ thinking isn’t known, but Leavitt said one possible explanation is that the underlying mechanisms that regulate the body’s reaction to heat may work less effectively in people with MS.

Leavitt said her work was a direct result of a 2010 study by scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, which showed that brain lesion activity in MS patients was two to three times higher during the months of March through August, compared with other times of the year. that paper was published last August in the journal Neurology.

Another MS researcher called Leavitt’s study “an important follow-up” to the paper by Brigham and Women’s researchers.

“It’s a fairly recognized phenomenon that MS patients complain of increased symptoms in the summer months, but this is the first time that someone has really looked at cognitive functioning related to temperature,” said Dr. Jonathan L. Carter, associate professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The next steps, said Carter, “may be to find out if these changes are related to new disease activity or just worsening deficits related to the existing lesions, and also look at whether existing drug therapies might help with this temperature-related cognitive impairment.”

“One really important bottom-line implication of our findings is for researchers who are performing drug trials,” Leavitt added. “They need to consider this temperature effect when they’re doing baseline cognitive testing. the results could be very different if you take your baseline in June versus December,” she said.

Depending on the results of future research, it’s also conceivable that the findings could influence life decisions made by people with MS, the researchers say.

Experts note that research presented at meetings has not been subjected to the same type of rigorous scrutiny given to research published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. all rights reserved.

SOURCES: Victoria Leavitt, Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow, Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Laboratory, Kessler Foundation Research Center, West Orange, N.J.; Jonathan L. Carter, M.D., associate professor, neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Scottsdale, Ariz.; American Academy of Neurology, news release, Feb. 17, 2011