Third of us fall ill after being caught out by the weather

HOW many times have we left the raincoat at home, only to be caught in a downpour – or been warned there’ll be hours of sunshine, and forget to take a hat?

A third of Britons believe they have become ill by not preparing for the weather. And many say they have been laid so low that they’ve had to take time off work.

Some 34 per cent of men and women surveyed for the Met Office blamed ill health on being caught out by the weather.

Many said they’d become sick after not wrapping up warmly enough in the winter. Others may have blamed a cold or a chill on going out without their brolly.

But good weather was also deemed bad for health, with sunburn causing misery. A quarter of

‘Particularly high pollen levels’

those affected have to take almost a week off sick.

The figures come from a poll of 2,000 adults to mark the launch of a weather app for hay fever victims. Run by the Met Office, it provides pollen counts for up to five days ahead, as well as morning alerts on days levels are expected to be particularly high.

Forty-one per cent of the adults of working age surveyed by Opinium Research said they suffered from hay fever to some extent and 11 per cent said their symptoms were so severe that they were forced to take time off work.

These men and women missed an average of 8.4 working days a year. Extrapolated to the UK’s 31.5million workforce, this suggests that almost 30million sick days a year are due to hay fever.

Derrick Ryall, of the Met Office, said: ‘Those who suffer from hay fever can find out what the day and week ahead holds for them.’