[Taxacom] Sweden Flora (medical)

[Donna Ford-werntz]

Botanist/European taxacomers, Anyone interested in this potentially
plant related medical issue (see below) please contact Ana directly (or
me) for the golf course flora document.  Contrary to what she says,
there is a table with latin binomials at the end (and good photos of the
plants organized by tee hole).  The original post is from an
environmental health listserve.

From: Anna.Blomqvist at regionhalland.se
[mailto:Anna.Blomqvist at regionhalland.se] 
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 5:32 AM
Subject: SV: [occ-env-med-l] golf player's anaphylaxis

I am located in Halmstad, in the South-West of Sweden at the West Coast
between Gothenburg and Copenhagen.  The golf club has made a book with
all the flowers along the whole golf course. It is in Swedish though and
it does not contain the latin names.  "Hål 1" is hole one, "Hål 2" is
hole 2 etc....

The fist time my patient got ill on 10th tee. The second time after
leaving 13th tee, and was really bad on 17th green and picked up of an
ambulance leaving 18th green. The third time when he went to the driving
range.  I found a map 
http://www.tourgolf.se/books/Popup.aspx?MagID=1&MagNo=33 If you manage
to pass the first 9 holes there is a map for the whole golf course. You
change pages using the mouse. Not very handy. We are looking closely on
the chemical substances.

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sat Jun 18 01:45:36 2011
Subject: [occ-env-med-l] golf player's anaphylaxis

I have a patient who has been playing golf for 30 years. This spring he
has suffered from anaphylaxis three times playing at his golf course. He
has not had any symptoms playing elsewhere.  He has no signs of
sensitisation to pollen, animals etc. And no sensitisation to Latex.  I
have visited the course and inventoried the flora and also the chemicals
used. There is an extensive amount of flowers, but I cannot identify any
pollinating in May that is specific for this golf course.

The only thing I have found is that when spraying pesticides the
greenskeeper also uses a dye in order to see where they have sprayed, so
they won't spray twice. The patient says that the golf balls get blue
when the ground is recently sprayed and the players may get blue on the
fingers. This dye is a triphenylmetan-dye. I have found some case
reports on anaphylactic reactions when perfoming lymphography with this
kind of dyes. To me it seems unlikely that the patient should be exposed
to this dye in an amount that could cause anaphylactic reactions but
until now I have not found any other allergen. Dirty fingers eating
snacks?

I have done a search on Medline on golf and anaphylaxis and in fact I
got one reference! It said that cardiac arrest and anaphylaxis to insect
bites are probably common overlooked causes of death at pool sides and
on golf courses. My patient has no history of insect bites, and it was
also too early on the season.

Myself I have played golf for 50 years, but I have never seen anything
like this. Does anybody have similar cases?

Kindest regards
Anna Blomqvist
Senior Physician
Dept of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Halmstad Hospital
301 85 Halmstad
anna.blomqvist at regionhalland.se


Donna Ford-Werntz, Herbarium Curator
Associate Clinical Professor
Biology Dept., Box 6057
Life Sci. Bldg., West Virginia Univ.
Morgantown, WV 26506
304-293-5201 X31549