It has been a nightmare these last few months for those suffering from allergies, especially with the pollen count on the rise. Students on campus have been experiencing symptoms such as watery eyes, itchy throats, post-nasal drip, etc. In so, it has been hard staying ahead of the game with finals week coming up.
“I wake up in the morning sniffling, I can’t breathe. I walk outside, I start sneezing. I get hives. My nasal passages clog up, and there’s constant post-nasal drip in the back of my throat,” said Josh Neumaier, Sophomore.
“I think [pollen] is annoyingly necessary. We need pollen, but it causes problems for people with allergies, and it just covers everything in yellow,” said Kyshawn Williams, Sophomore.
According to biologist Dr. Alan Harvey, this is no coincidence that the pollen count has broken records.
“Every year it has been getting worse and worse…every year is a new record,” he said. Dr. Harvey explains how many factors play a role in the rise of pollen count, such as climate change, rising carbon dioxide levels, and January’s cold snap. “The warmer it is, the earlier plants can start producing pollen. We’re seeing plants start to produce pollen earlier in the year, and the season lasts longer. That’s because of rising temperatures,” he explained. Carbon dioxide also plays a role in the rise of pollen: “The more CO2 there is for plants to get a hold of, the faster they can grow, the larger they can grow, the more pollen they can produce,” he added.
People react to certain kinds of pollen because our immune systems treat its microscopic grains like a foreign invader; pollen itself is not harmful, it is a mistaken identity. Dr. Harvey explains, “When we breathe in pollen, it can trigger an allergic response. Your immune system reacts to the pollen as if it were a harmful invader. It sees it as a pathogen.”
What is Pollen?
“A pollen grain is an entire separate male plant. It works out to be functionally equivalent to sperm. So the pollen gets over to the plant [via wind or sticking to a pollinator], and they call it fertilization, which then ends up with a seed.” Dr. Alan Harvey explained.
Dr. Harvey discussed a common misconception about how the yellow specs of pollen we see on the ground and on cars are what we breathe in, when it is actually a nearly invisible particle of pollen produced by grasses and trees, not from plants with attractive flowers. “Most of the pollen in the air isn’t what you see on your car — that yellow stuff is usually pine pollen, which is big and heavy, and doesn’t stay in the air long. The stuff that causes allergies is usually smaller, like oak or grass pollen, and that’s what gets into your nose,” he explained. Dr. Harvey added that ragweed, in particular, is a common culprit in causing allergies. “Ragweed is one of the worst for allergies — it produces huge amounts of very small pollen that stays in the air and travels far.”
Pollen can be annoying, but it does have a purpose that is far more beneficial than we realize, outweighing the downsides. Dr. Harvey ends with, “Pollen is necessary. Without pollen, we would not have most of our food plants. We would not have most of any plants.”
