Pollen on the breeze is making people sneeze
AFTER a big burst of early spring pollen, some Dunedin hay fever sufferers are keen to avoid sneezing because their symptoms could be mistaken for those of Covid19.
Several Dunedin residents said yesterday their hay fever had recently been markedly worse than usual.
Corstorphine mother Rachel Stevenson said her hay fever had been ‘‘way worse’’ this year.
Two conifer trees at her property had been shedding big clouds of pollen, her eyes had been streaming and scratchy from early morning and she had been waking up feeling ‘‘under the weather’’.
There were plans to chop down the two trees because of their striking effect on her family’s health, she said.
She could generally control any impulse to cough or sneeze in public, but felt selfconscious because of community concerns about Covid19.
‘‘You just can’t cough and sneeze in public at the moment,’’ she said.
Another young mother, who asked not to be named, said she had long suffered severely from hay fever but ‘‘it’s definitely worse this year’’.
She normally started taking her hay fever medication about midSeptember or later, but this year had started taking it in late July or early last month.
She had twice been tested, both negatively, for Covid19 this year. Once she wore a mask in public, but felt awkward about the adverse attention any coughing or sneezing attracted. ‘‘It’s not nice people giving you daggers.’’ It was good for people to be vigilant but there was also a need for ‘‘a bit more kindness’’, she said.
Dunedin Urgent Pharmacy pharmacist Daniel Hanjo said he had also noticed a recent increase in people seeking treatment for hay fever, and people were also aware of Covid19 safety control requirements.
Antidote Octagon pharmacist Radhika Pearson said that since the start of last week there had been an increase in customer inquiries for medicines to treat hay fever.
Ms Pearson believed some people were ‘‘a lot more aware’’ of the overall Covid19 situation and were keen to manage ‘‘any type of sniffle’’.
University of Otago botanist Associate Prof Janice Lord said clouds of pollen from trees, including pines, macrocarpa, sequoia and other coniferous trees, had contributed to a challenging start to the hay fever season.
A dry, warm winter and a dry, windy start to spring meant clouds of windborne pollen, and it was only rain that offered any relief.
‘‘We’re definitely up significantly on last year,’’ she said of early spring pollen conditions.
Further dry weather and more northwesterly winds would mean ‘‘peak pollen’’ for hay fever sufferers.