Climate change contributing to longer allergy seasons
November 4, 2024 – Allergy seasons are starting earlier and ending later, in part due to climate change, according to experts.
Kari Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an allergy and immunology specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said in an October 30 GBH article that she typically wouldn’t see allergies in her patients this late in the year. But “it is absolutely a thing that we are seeing more and more,” she said. “Not just in our country or in Boston, but all around the world.”
Nadeau noted that plants are growing in areas where they wouldn’t have grown in previous years, and they’re growing and pollinating for longer because of warmer temperatures. In addition, she said, increased carbon dioxide in the air, mostly from diesel exhaust emissions, alters the chemistry of pollen so that it can be taken off plants faster and sooner.
Smoke from recent wildfires in Massachusetts has added to the problem, Nadeau said. Both the pollen and the wildfires are “heavy hitters in terms of increasing people’s lung and airway disease,” she said.
Read the GBH article: Allergy season is dragging on thanks to dry and warm weather
Photo: iStock/Anut21ng
