Very high pollen levels and hot weather are conspiring to bring discomfort to hay fever sufferers across the country, with the Met Office saying climate change could make pollen seasons longer and more extreme.
Weekly visitors to the site’s hay fever advice pages have tripled in the past five weeks, according to NHS England, with 27,834 visits in 24 hours on Sunday – one every three seconds. On Friday, the Met Office put 12 areas of the UK, covering England, Wales and most of Scotland, on red alert for “very high” pollen levels.
“We are seeing lots of high count days because the weather is very suitable for pollen emission from grasses,” said Dr Beverley Adams-Groom, a senior palynologist at the University of Worcester, who leads the UK’s pollen forecasting programme in association with the Met Office.
Adams-Groom said pollen counts this year were roughly average, but added: “The problem for hay fever sufferers is not so much the size of the pollen count, since any amount over 50 pollen grains per cubic metre of air is problematic for the majority, it is more the perpetual onslaught of high days, due to the almost continuous good weather in many regions since the season began in late May/early June.”
If the hot weather continues into next week, the grasses will become exhausted more quickly, offering some respite to those with hay fever, she said. “Already, I am seeing some evidence that this is happening, with grasses going over very quickly.”
Typically, the season for grass pollen, which causes most allergies, lasts from mid-May until July, while the weed pollen season generally covers the end of June to September. The Met Office pollen forecast show that some areas are getting a double hit.
Hay fever symptoms include sneezing, coughing, a runny or blocked nose, as well as red, itchy or watery eyes. Sufferers can also experience headaches, earache or lose their sense of smell.
Scientists predict that as global heating causes a higher frequency of hotter, drier summers and warmer wetter winters in the UK, the seasonal pollen pattern could change. “There’s a growing scientific consensus that climate change will impact the pollen season in the UK. It could result in longer pollen seasons,” said a Met Office spokesperson.
Urban areas tend to have lower pollen counts than the countryside, but research has also shown that people in urban areas experience more severe symptoms because pollution can exacerbate the body’s reaction.
Prof Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester who carried out the research, said: “Pollution can damage the protective barriers in our nose and respiratory tracts so we’re more likely to get things in, we’re seeing that pollution can have an effect on immune sensing … and it can narrow airways and make it difficult to breathe.
“We are seeing more and more people developing hay fever. It has been increasing year on year and in the hospitalisation data, you can see that trend too. More of us are being very ill with it.”
Margaret Kelman, the acting head of clinical services at Allergy UK, said one in four adults in the UK were affected by hay fever and that the number had been increasing sharply. “The number of people affected by hay fever has trebled in the last 30 years.”
The increase is partly due to better diagnosis, but is likely to also be climate-related. “The weather affects hay fever exposure and symptoms because pollen counts are higher on dry, warm days with low humidity and a gentle breeze to help disperse the fine pollen granules into the air and keep the pollen grains circulating” said Kelman.
