‘ DEADLY’ POLLEN HEALTH ALERT
Allergy attacks will soar due to spread of notorious plant
A RARE type of pollen will cause months of misery for allergy sufferers with potentially deadly consequences, experts warn.
Pollen from the ragweed plant, which is spreading across Europe, is notorious for causing severe allergic reactions and devastating asthma attacks.
The plant, which requires lengthy mild spells to flourish, had been a rarity in Britain but its pollen was detected on several consecutive days last year.
Experts fear it is becoming established in the UK as the climate warms up and will pose serious problems for public health.
One expert warned of a longer hay fever season and an “increased risk of a potentially life- threatening asthma attack” for the 79 per cent of sufferers whose illness is made worse by pollen.
Ragweed is already the biggest cause of hay fever in the US.
Its pollen can travel for hundreds of miles on the wind and it is resilient enough to survive
through a mild winter. According to French researchers it is set to spread rapidly through Europe including southern Britain.
Lynda Hamaoui- Laguel of the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory in the Paris suburb of Gif sur Yvette, said: “We estimate that by 2050 airborne ragweed pollen concentrations will be about four times higher than they are now.”
Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, the French scientists said that two- thirds of the increase would be caused by global warming and changes in land use.
They added: “Once established, ragweed is difficult to eradicate because of its longlived seed, its capacity to re- sprout after cutting and its propensity to evolve resistance to herbicides.
“Our results indicate that controlling the current European ragweed invasion will become more difficult in the future as the environment will be more favourable for ragweed growth and spread.”
The French researchers, who used computer modelling techniques, said their work highlighted “the need for the development of effective and regionally co- ordinated eradication programmes”.
When exposed to ragweed pollen, people with allergies can suffer reactions ranging from itchy eyes and sneezing to respiratory distress in severe cases.
Concerns about the impact of ragweed on Britain’s 18 million allergy sufferers were first raised last year by Deborah Waddell, Asthma UK’s lead clinical adviser.
She warned: “The milder weather and presence of ragweed pollen may now result in a longer pollen season this year which will cause misery for people with asthma and hay fever in the UK. The 79 per cent of people with asthma who find that pollen makes their symptoms worse may also be at an increased risk of a potentially life- threatening asthma attack.”
Researchers at the University of Leicester, who have been monitoring pollen levels for more than 40 years, found signs of ragweed on four consecutive days last year.
On one day the ragweed pollen count reached 38 – a level high enough to cause significant hay fever attacks.