Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Commuters wearing facemasks ride the train at the LRT - 1 on February 12, 2020. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN/File

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Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:504px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175021427860520200212-lrt-love-train-GC-7469.jpg" style="width:504px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Commuters wearing facemasks ride the train at the LRT - 1 on February 12, 2020. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN/File</span></span></span></div><p>PARIS, France — Runny nose, itching eyes, worsening asthma symptoms -- the effects of hay fever are nothing to sneeze at, experts say, warning of an &quot;explosion&quot; of allergies as climate change lengthens and intensifies pollen seasons.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/5/6/-gamot-ba-sa-hika-ang-butiki-mga-dapat-tandaan-kung-ikaw-ay-may-asthma-1651">&#x27;Gamot ba sa hika ang butiki?&#x27;: Mga dapat tandaan kung ikaw ay may asthma</a></div><p>The UN&#x27;s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has found that a shifting climate has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollen and spores.</p><p>As winter frost thaws earlier and spring weather gets warmer, plants and trees flower earlier, extending the pollen season, numerous studies have shown.</p><p>Air pollution can also increase people&#x27;s sensitivity to allergens, while invasive species are spreading into new regions and causing fresh waves of allergies.</p><p>More and more people, particularly in industrialized nations, have reported developing allergy symptoms in recent decades.</p><p>Around a quarter of adults in Europe suffer from airborne allergies, including severe asthma, while the proportion among children is 30 to 40 percent.</p><p>That figure is expected to rise to half of Europeans by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/life/03/12/19/kids-with-asthma-may-struggle-in-school-study">Kids with asthma may struggle in school: study</a></div><p>&quot;We&#x27;re in crisis because allergies are exploding,&quot; said Severine Fernandez, president of the French Allergists&#x27; Union.</p><p>Whereas previously an allergic person would endure only what is commonly known as hay fever, albeit sometimes for years, &quot;now that person can become asthmatic after one or two years&quot;, Fernandez said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;IRRITANT</strong><strong> POLLEN&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Climate change affects allergy patients in multiple ways, according to a 2023 report by the WMO.</p><p>Rising levels of carbon dioxide, one of the main heat-trapping gases produced by burning fossil fuels, boost plant growth, in turn increasing pollen production.</p><p>Air pollution not only irritates the airways of people exposed, but it also causes stress to plants, which then produce more &quot;allergenic and irritant pollen&quot;.</p><p>Nicolas Visez, an aerobiologist at the University of Lille, said each plant species reacted differently to a variety of factors such as water availability, temperature and CO2 concentrations.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/weather-traffic/2025/1/14/explainer-how-climate-change-is-driving-extreme-weather-events-1047">EXPLAINER: How climate change is driving extreme weather events</a></div><p>Birch trees for example will wither as summers get hotter and drier, while the heat causes a proliferation of ragweed, a highly allergenic invasive plant.</p><p>&quot;There&#x27;s no doubt that climate change is having an effect,&quot; Visez said.</p><p>In a study published in 2017, researchers projected that ragweed allergies would more than double in Europe by 2041-2060 as a result of climate change, raising the number of people affected from 33 million to 77 million.</p><p>The authors suggested that higher pollen concentrations as well as longer pollen seasons could make symptoms more severe.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>ALLERGY ACTION</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>A Europe-wide &quot;AutoPollen&quot; program under development aims to provide real-time data on the distribution of pollen and fungal spores.</p><p>In Switzerland, a tie-up with MeteoSwiss allows patients and doctors to match personal allergy profiles with maps of specific allergens throughout the country.</p><p>In parts of France, authorities have planted &quot;pollinariums&quot;, gardens packed with the main local allergen species.</p><p>These provide information on the very first pollen released into the air so that people can start taking antihistamines and other protective measures in a timely manner.</p><p>&quot;Hazelnuts have started to bloom as early as mid-December, which wasn&#x27;t the case before,&quot; said Salome Pasquet, a botanist with the association behind the pollen gardens.</p><p>&quot;That&#x27;s really because we&#x27;ve had very mild winters, so flowering has come earlier,&quot; she said.</p><p>Some countries are taking an interventionist approach -- cutting off the pollen at the source.</p><p>In Japan, the government announced a plan in 2023 to combat allergies caused by the archipelago&#x27;s many cedar trees, which includes felling cedars to replace them with species that produce less pollen.</p><p>Countries in Europe are also more mindful of species in the environment, both native ones that have been planted and invasive newcomers like ragweed.</p><p>Preference is given to species with a lower allergenic potential, such as maple or fruit trees.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/life/06/02/17/alamin-ibat-ibang-allergy-dulot-ng-gamot">ALAMIN: Iba&#x27;t ibang allergy dulot ng gamot</a></div><p>&quot;The idea is not to stop planting allergenic species,&quot; Pasquet said, but to be mindful of creating diversity and avoiding having &quot;places where there are rows of birch trees, as was the case a few years ago&quot;.</p><p>It was birch trees in a client&#x27;s garden that originally set off symptoms for Simon Barthelemy, an architect who lives near Paris.</p><p>&quot;I had a major eye allergy, and it&#x27;s been a recurring problem every year since,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m on antihistamines, but if I don&#x27;t take them I get itchy eyes, I&#x27;m very tired, I cough... I can&#x27;t sleep at night.&quot;</p><div><strong>— By Julien Mivielle, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EIXBL0L_Q98?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>The UN's World Meteorological Organization has found that a shifting climate has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollen and spores.</p>

The UN's World Meteorological Organization has found that a shifting climate has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollen and spores.

Runny nose, worsening asthma: Climate change worsens allergies

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Runny nose, worsening asthma: Climate change worsens allergies

Agence France-Presse

Published Jun 18, 2025 10:42 AM PHT

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