Climate Change Set to Worsen Pollen and Grass Allergies | The Weather Channel
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The warming planet will likely make your pollen and grass allergies a lot worse, according to a new study published in PLOS One

ByAnnie HauserFebruary 27, 2015




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The warming planet will likely make your pollen and grass allergies a lot worse, according to a new study published in PLOS One — and it's just the latest example of how climate change is already hurting your health.

Scientists examined the affect of CO2 and ozone levels on grass and pollen production and found that by the end of the century, levels could increase more than 200 percent.

(Above, the current worst U.S. cities for people with seasonal allergies.)

"Because carbon dioxide is used as food for plants, in atmospheres with more CO2 plants have more resources," postdoctoral researcher and first author Jennifer Albertine, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told weather.com in an email. "This allows them to grow larger and produce more pollen."

(MORE: 11 Weird Things Making Your Allergies Worse)

For this finding, the research team exposed grass plants to the current atmospheric combination of CO2 and ozone, as well as the predicted level at the end of the century. Although ozone actually hurts a plant's pollen production, the CO2 rise is expected to be so great it will override ozone's negative effect. "Our results show that CO2 will overwhelm any negative effects of ozone and pollen and allergen exposure is likely to increase even if ozone reaches projected levels," Albertine said. "At lower levels of ozone we have higher pollen production which will be worse for allergy sufferers."

This is the first look at how CO2 will affect specific grass species, Albertine said. Although this study is far from the first to predict a link between climate change and more-severe allergy seasons. Previously, experts have said that the longer, warmer growing season will exacerbate existing allergy symptoms through longer times of pollen production. "[But] we don’t yet know whether this dramatic increase in pollen will also cause more people to develop allergies," Albertine said.

What's known regardless, she added, is that there will be a "longer season of suffering for allergic individuals."

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