Climate change worsens seasonal allergies as pollen count rises

Climate change is going to make your seasonal allergies worse as increasing temperatures send more pollen into the air. While pollen may seem like a spring and Fall problem, a new study has found that the US will face over a 200 percent increase in total pollen count in the 21st century if the world continues to produce emissions at the rate same rate as today.

The spring pollen season will start 40 days earlier and last up to 19 days longer, according to the study.

In India, nearly 20-30 percent of the population suffers from at least one allergic disease like asthma, allergic rhinitis, anaphylaxis, drug, food, insect allergy, eczema and urticaria. A large percentage of the population is also allergic to pollen, with the pollen season occurring during September, October in the winter and April, May in summer.

“Just a few pollen grains can be enough to trigger allergic reactions, even in people who have never been allergic to anything before,” Johannes Mazomeit, a botanist, told DW. “It can hit anybody.”

But pollen is an even bigger problem in colder countries in Europe and North America, where nearly half of the population is allergic to pollen. Pollen itself is released by plants like ragweed, ryegrass, tumbleweed, mulberry and hundreds of other species of grasses.

Plants release pollen as part of their reproductive cycle, but with warmer temperatures, plants are able to grow faster and for longer throughout the year. As a result, plants are able to be in their reproductive phase for a longer period of time and earlier in the season. With increased temperatures, there is strong possibility of having pollen throughout the year.

But the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from continuously increasing emissions is also causing the protein of the pollen to change aggressively while pollution also causes plants to increase their pollen production as well.

With allergies causing economic losses due to absenteeism and medical costs of $170 billion annually for just the EU, an increasing amount of pollen is not just a threat to health but to economies as well.