WATCH: Pollen threat is nothing to sneeze at

ZULULAND’S high pollen count is making life uncomfortable – and possible dangerous – for many residents, especially those who are allergic or asthmatic.

Doctors and pharmacist in the area are dealing daily with patients suffering allergies.

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This being the height of the tree pollinating season (August to October), hay fever is rife and it won’t become much better soon as the grass pollen season stretches from November to March.

According to highly informative website ‘The Real Pollen Count’, pollen allergy tends to give three major clinical problems: allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis and asthma.It layman’s terms this equates to a runny or blocked nose, sneezing, itching eyes, post-nasal drip, sore throat, tightness of the chest, coughing or shortness of breath.

These are indications of the immune system reacting or overreacting to allergic substances.

The sufferer can also feel really unwell and tired, while there is now also the possibility that pollen allergy symptoms could be confused with Covid indications.Paediatrician and allergy specialist, Professor Claudia Gray is quoted as saying that an airway which is soggy and swollen from allergies is more prone to viral and bacterial infections, and that nasal blockage can lead to sinus and ear infections.

Weather conditions – heat and rain – can affect the day-to-day pollen levels in an area, while strong winds can quickly spread the pollen far and wide.

Increased pollen levels relating to climate change are being experienced, while the planting of alien species and removal of indigenous forests, play a role in local pollen levels.

Pollen levels are determined by using spore traps that catch dust from the air and deposit it on an adhesive strip.

The amount of pollen per cubic metre of air is calculated to extract pollen levels.

As to the potential danger of pollen allergies, ‘The Real Pollen Count’ reports that: ‘On 21 November 2016, an unusual thunderstorm occurred in Melbourne, Australia during the peak of grass pollen season.

‘Within 30 hours there were more than 8 000 excess chest-related presentations to emergency departments, 35 intensive care admissions and ten asthma-related deaths.’

No, not the burning bush!
ZO staffer Val van der Walt was standing under a tree on the newspaper’s property last week when he saw what appeared to be heavy, grey smoke pouring out from the high branches.

Mystified, he circled the tree – later determined to be one from the yellowwood family – and noticed the same phenomenon when he shook a branch.

Soon he was covered in pollen and realised it must have been a bird alighting that triggered the first ‘pollen smoke’.

After putting two and two together, some investigative journalism was called for and contact was made with the UCT-based ‘The Real Pollen Count’ team.

In no time, response was received from Dr Nanike Esterhuizen and Dr Dilys Berman of the UCT Lung Institute’s Allergy and Immunology Unit:
‘The video you sent is quite spectacular. Yellowwood trees are wind pollinated and produce copious amounts of pollen, very similar to pine tree pollen.
‘They are not the most dominant of the allergenic tree pollens, but could have more severe effects at such a close range as shown in the footage.
‘The pollen from this group of trees also frequently causes conjunctivitis symptoms (pink eye).
‘We are glad you found our website interesting. We are trying to spread the word about ‘The Real Pollen Count’ as far and side as possible, to assist doctors and allergy sufferers across South Africa to manage allergy symptoms.
‘As our monitoring network expands, we will hopefully be able to provide more local scale pollen data to you in future.’