In recent years we have been witnessing increasingly longer and warmer summers. Sometimes we can even have the feeling that seasons are combined, to the point that, especially in the Mediterranean region, the term veroño was coined some time ago. This change will certainly appeal to those who do not enjoy winter at all, but it is causing a lot of discomfort to allergy sufferers.
The plants, having such good weather and for more weeks, take advantage and flourish. In doing so, the wind carries with it an increasing amount of pollen. Some of that pollen, as much as we want to avoid it, ends up inside human noses. And some of them are very sensitive. The sad thing about all this is that due to global warming, allergies will only skyrocket.
Although, of course, the increase in temperatures is not solely responsible. Drought and pollution are a major part of the problem. According Moral Angel, Chairman of the Aerobiology Committee of the Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (Seaic) and allergist at the Toledo Hospital Complex, »there is a direct relationship between environmental pollution and the increase in cases of respiratory allergy. Particulates removed in diesel engine combustion and heating create a hostile environment for plants. To defend themselves, they produce proteins that make the pollens more aggressive. '
High temperatures lengthen pollination periods, so rhinitis is no longer seasonal. But there is still more: because it rains less and less, the weaker plant species are disappearing. In doing so, the most resistant ones, which are also the ones that cause the most allergies, such as salsola, which is a very common herb in gutters and farmland, are replacing them.
Can anything be done to mitigate the impact of this increase in allergies? Of course: plant allergy-free trees, restrict traffic and do not pollute.