More and more allergies? Blame climate change

Tearful eyes, rhinitis, sneezing, cough ... are aggravated in spring but also in summer and even autumn. And is that global warming is increasing the cases of allergy and asthma.

It is affirmed by the World Allergy Organization, which includes 97 medical societies. But not only that: the problem is expected to increase, because several factors related to climate change are influencing the proliferation of plants and their pollen production, so that more and more people could be affected.

A greater global warming, more allergies

The effects of climate change include new allergens, more cases of allergies, longer duration of the manifestations and greater intensity of these. "We are seeing an increase both in the number of allergic people and in the allergens that cause them," explains Leonar Dielory, professor of allergies at the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers University (United States), the Environmetnal Health Perspectives magazine.

In the French region of Rhône-Alpes, for example, the prevalence of hay fever has increased by 4% between 2014 and 2015.

The cause is mainly the increase in pollen production by plants as a result of the rise in temperatures.

Some grasses and other herbs that proliferate especially with heat have flowers that we can barely see but whose pollen can have a high allergenic potential, not only in spring but also in summer.