There are many of us who suffer from allergies, but due to climate change it is likely that there are more of us. In the specific case of Catalonia, this winter has been one of the hottest and most humid in the last 30 years, so plants are loaded with pollen which can be spread very easily in the coming months as no rains or too high temperatures are expected.
But this situation, according to the Catalan Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (SCAIC), will worsen over the years.
The director of the Aerobiological Network of Catalonia from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Dr. Jordina Belmonte, explained that »This spring will be a bit hard for allergy sufferers, so people prepare for this situation because the plants are very loaded and there will be a strong concentration of pollen this year».
En particular, grasses and parietaria, herbs that grow spontaneously in fields and gardens, will produce a large amount of pollen, which will be a problem for allergy sufferers since these plants grow close to the ground. Although they will not be the only ones: olive trees and cypresses are other plant beings that are also producing a greater amount of pollen, specifically, 15% more.
The SCAIC advises that allergies are on the rise and last longer due to environmental conditions. Pollution, as well as climate change is causing allergy sufferers to suffer from symptoms from February to November-December.
This spring the Aerobiological Network of Catalonia, in collaboration with the UAB Computer Vision Center, will launch the Planttes technological application, a tool that will allow citizens to mark on a map the presence of plants that cause allergies in different points of the cities