Dangerous sneezing

Regarding the report on ‘photosneezia’, light-related sneezing [ FT406:28]: in the early 1980s, when I was in my 20s, I was interested in learning about genetics. I borrowed a book by someone called MacCormack – was it MacCormack’s Atlas? Anyway, it was a vast tome that I believe was considered very important – if not definitive – at the time. I recall one of the stranger genes described, which caused its possessors to sneeze when they went into strong sunlight. The text mentioned how this might make driving a car (actually) difficult and (potentially) dangerous – think driving in and out of dappled sunlight. The person with the light/sneeze gene would be constantly sneezing, to an extent that would obviously make their driving hazardous.

Jane Dyer

Cardiff

To me, photosneezia sounds like a form of synæsthesia, where senses get mixed up with each other – even the gustatory form sounds like this. I have experienced the former as a strange sensation in the corner of the eye, near the tear duct, that then leads to the sneezing fit – and even that has a similar irritation as to when you try pulling hairs out of your nostrils (the curse of old age and rampant hair follicles in the nose and also sticking out of your ears). Tony Sandy

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