Curious

[Islander]

My weekend relaxation is to play bingo. The place where I go is divided into a smoking/non smoking room. Due to the layout of the building, I play in the smoking section which is a bigger area.

Over the last several months, I've made a curious observation. In order to clear the room of smoke the building has an H-Vac system. Because it is winter right now, the heating is on. When the room gets too hot, it automatically switches to cool air like an air conditioner.

My observation is this: When the air conditioning is on, I hear, in a room of may be 50 plus people, at least three or four that have sneezing fits of say six to ten or more times each. The majority of these are females.

My question is: Are there actually people allergic to air conditioning or is there another trigger factor and if so, what? I play every weekend, so I notice this a lot. It seems to occur the first time the air conditioning starts up and after that, I don't hear any more sneezing. For example, last weekend I noted three different women had sneezing fits of five plus when the air condtioner started up but none as the night wore on.

Tonight, there was a lady who started sneezing and it was too bad I wasn't concentrating to count how big of a fit she had but it was at least twenty and as the night wore on, and the air conditioner came on at least once more in a three hour period, she didn't sneeze any more. From where I sat, I could not see her face but, she was over 50. I don't think she was prepared for the fit because she had to borrow tissues from the person sitting beside her.

I'm quite curious about this phenomenon.

[Guest WalterDESneeze]

Some people sneeze when they have an immediate temperature change.....and where do you play bingo>

[the texaskid]

A/C makes the air very dry as well, and that can irritate your nose. I always sneeze a lot on planes because of the air conditioning.

And can I just say, that sounds like a more than usually entertaining Bingo session.

[Guest Kessie]

My mother sneezes when there's an air pressure change, inside or outside. For example, we once went to NYC together on vacation and when I told her that I have to have a fan running all night or I can't sleep (the sound of the motor relaxes me), she said she was fine with that but that her "sneezing might keep me up". I didn't think too much of that comment until she did indeed wake me up early in the morning sneezing *shudder* (I despise when family sneezes around me!!). Anyway, she said it has something to do with what a blowing fan does to the air pressure in a room. I believe she has the same issue when air conditioning is first turned on, before the air pressure is stabilized from it running for a period of time.

[Trillium]

Another possibility is mold and/or dust build-up in the AC, particularly when it hasn't been running for an extended period of time. My allergies act up when I turn on either the house or car AC after not having had it on for awhile.

[Liberty Belle]

The room my husband used to rent was in a house that had forced air, and he used to sneeze when the air conditioning or heat went on for the first time at the beginning of the season -- clearing out all that dust, I imagine.

He's photic, however, and has also mentioned that it's not just the light that makes him sneeze, when he steps outside, it's also the change in temperature (as in from an air-conditioned store to the heat outside.)