Knowing that pollen from certain plant species are prevalent might make for better pollen count alerts In Texas, high rates of pollen from a species of juniper tree upped daily ER visits for asthma attacks Tracking species-specific pollen counts might help people with asthma guard against attacks FRIDAY, Aug. 9, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Pollen is a known trigger for seasonal allergies and , but new research suggests that certain plant species release pollen that are especially tough on asthmatics. Species-specific pollen alerts could help keep people with asthma safe, the Cornell University researchers reasoned.
“Even though the percent of asthma-related emergency department visits associated with pollen overall was only a few percent on an annual basis, at certain times of year when particular types of pollen were spiking, we sometimes saw up to almost 20% of visits were due to pollen,” said study lead author . He's an assistant professor at Cornell's School of Integrative Plant Science Soil and Crop Sciences. His team tracked nearly 175,000 emergency department visits recorded by the Texas Department of State Health Services between 2015 and 2020.
They focused on people living within 15 miles of one of eight pollen monitoring stations. Viruses and pollen can each help trigger an asthma attack, Katz noted. “Sometimes the timing of when viruses were prevalent changed,” he said in a Cornell news release, “and sometimes the timing of when pollen was in the air changed.