Yet another reason to dread climate change........

[marmar]

Researchers are probing the health and economic fallout from this year's record allergy season to understand how warming weather and shifting rainfall may lead to more widespread and costlier allergy problems in the future.

Already, doctors are seeing climate change alter how allergens disperse. "It played out in the form of the duration of the pollen season," said Leonard Bielory, an attending physician and allergist at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and a professor at Rutgers University's Center for Environmental Prediction.

"The worst was in the beginning of the year," he said, noting that New Jersey faced record high pollen counts in February (ClimateWire, April 30).

As the pollen and dust settle, researchers throughout the United States are calculating just how bad this year was and how much worse it can get. Itchy eyes and runny noses are rarely fatal, but the risk of allergen exposure is increasing as insects migrate north to newly hospitable land while oak, birch and ragweed disperse pollen more intensely and for longer stretches of the year. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-price-tag-for-allergies-will-rise-because-of-climate-change

[hrmjustin]

1. I have Asthma, and this years allergy season has been the absolute worst for me.

And it started so much earlier this year than normal. First bad allergies, than Sandy hits my city, and now we probably will get 20-30 inch snow storms in the next few months.

[immoderate]

3. That's called "teach the controversy!"

It takes advantage of the conventions of science to not declare certainty or claim proof. Then throw in some gratuitous "doomsday believers" comments. And be sure to confuse climate with weather. Good trolling.

--imm

[marmar]

4. Denial is dangerous nonsense.

nt

[rurallib]

5. as many others, I have suffered as I have never suffered before

and it ain't over yet.

[Greybnk48]

6. I think that the results of man-made climate change

are starting to be apparent with the allergy season being one of the results. I live 30miles south of Green Bay WI and we just had the warmest year on record, unless something dramatic happens in the next four weeks. As a life-long gardener I was caught sort of flat-footed last spring as to when to plant (as were my friends). Our season started fully three weeks ahead of any spring I can remember in the last 30 years of serious gardening.

I think it's fair to say that the hay-day of the Exxon and Phillip Morris paid climate change deniers is over. There is almost 100% consensus among trained climate scientists and the majority of those cock-a-mamie climate denier articles Exxon and PM paid to have put out, e.g., that CO2 is actually good for you or, weather is cyclic/don't worry be happy, have been shown to be complete and utter bullshit. Read George Monbiot's article "The Denial Industry" if you want to see how we were tricked to allow climate deniers to continue their agenda for 7 or 8 years longer than it should have. We all know what the REAL "junk science" is and it's coming out of right-wing think tanks, bought and paid for by Big Oil, but originally, Big Tobacco. To them I say fuck off!

[limpyhobbler]

7. k/r

[shanti]

8. the past 6 months or so

have been brutal - sneezing, coughing, watery eyes. i'm in a heavy pollen area, and hadn't had any symptoms for about 20 years and now this.

not cool...

[RobertEarl]

9. Keep an eye on this monitoring network

http://www.radiationnetwork.com/

It could be that the worst pollen problem in decades is helped by increasing radiation.