MEDICNE HAT, AB – Allergy season, it’s the time of year when that fuzzy stuff is in the air, and on the ground. And for allergy sufferers that means the symptoms come out.
“Sneezing, out of breath, and just this weird feeling,” said one man.
“I get hit with dust right away, and then as soon as the lilacs bloom I get hit by those. Yeah right til the end of the season I have hay fever,” another man said.
So what’s causing all the sniffling and sneezing right now? Daniel Coates is the director of the Aerobiology Research Laboratories.
“Well so far you’ve seen much more pollen this year compared to last year. But it also shifted. Last year in May and late April whereas this year we are seeing it in May and June,” he said.
The main culprits for allergens right now are trees, like pine with grass pollen soon to follow.
“This year you’ve had a lot more birch pollen as well as oak pollen, but you didn’t have as much poplar which is also highly allergenic. But it has been a high season in Western Canada. Eastern Canada has not had as high of a season as it did in 2022. But in eastern Canada last year we had a major heat spell in early April which caused a huge release of pollen,” Coates said.
Across Canada though, researchers say allergy season is getting longer and more pollen being is released.
“One of the reasons can be because we are getting warmer weather. So climate change. Climate change is no doubt having an impact on the release and the amount of pollen, that we are seeing in the air and we have over 30 years of data. So we do know what’s happening,” he said.
The worst of allergy season is expected to come to an end in the latter part of July depending on what you are allergic to.
In the meantime, he says there are some steps you can take to mitigate pollen’s impact to your health, including knowing what’s in the air and whether or not you are allergic to it. He recommends checking out the pollen forecast or downloading an allergy suffers app to track and monitor the pollen in the air.
“Other things they can do is wear wraparound sunglasses. That helps keep the pollen out of the eyes. A great one if you are a parent is delegating lawn mowing to someone else so you are not getting the grass pollen, changing filters in your furnace to HEPA filters.
The rain, Coates says, can also provide some relief.
“What it does is it actually washes the pollen out of the sky and puts it down on the ground, and once it is there people really aren’t inhaling it. So it is quite a benefit, the rain in terms of it doesn’t allow it to stay in the air. So we always recommend to allergy sufferers to go for a walk after it rains,”
All tips to make sure those watery eyes, sniffles, and sneezes are kept at bay this year.
