Phoenix was said to be a place to cure ailments, just by its natural climate. The high-Sonora desert was so dry, and the wide-open spaces so inviting, that residents packed into no-man’s land to be healed. With all of these people came pollution, and now days there are times when people should not leave their air conditioned homes for risk of breathing the dirty air.
Zurich, like much of Switzerland, has been plagued by dryness this year, in what some have called a European drought of the century. (I am sure they mean the last 100 years, and not just the last 11 years of this century.) That dryness, combined with flowers, trees, plants, animals, people, has puffed so much pollen, perfume, and cigarette puffing, that I have been on a non-stop sneeze fest.