ALLERGIES IN NORTH AMERICA

* Approximately one in five or more than 50 million (53,980,772) Americans suffer from allergic diseases.
* An estimated 37,786,541 Americans have a pollen allergy.
* Between six and seven million adults in the US have a food allergy.
* Roughly 20 million Americans have asthma -- three times as many as 25 years ago. One in eight children suffer from the disease.
* It is estimated that 12,000,000 American have food allergies.
* In 2002, approximately 14 million office visits to health care providers were attributed to allergic rhinitis.
* Allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic disease in the United States, costing the health care system $18 billion annually.
* Chronic sinusitis is the most commonly reported chronic disease, affecting 16.3% of people (nearly 32 million) in the United States in 1997.
* It was estimated in 1998 that increased absenteeism and reduced productivity due to allergies cost U.S. companies more than $250 million.
* The estimated overall costs of allergic rhinitis in the United States in 1996 totaled $6 billion.
* The Cincinnati Children's Hospital states that not only has the number of children suffering from allergies increased, so has the severity of the allergic reactions.
* Over 6 million people in Canada have allergies.
* An estimated 4,182,998 Canadians suffer from pollen allergies.
* 12% of Canadian children are affected by asthma and it continues to be a major cause of hospitalization in Canada.
* In 1993, over $12 billion was spent on asthma.