Alaska’s prolonged break-up cycle and warm temperatures are increasing mold levels; paired with less moisture this winter these conditions could really affect allergy sufferers.
Director of the Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Center of Alaska Dr. Jeffrey Demain said that pairs with a larger Northern Hemisphere and subarctic areas trend.
Demain: “Higher levels of pollen and earlier onset of pollen, so I anticipate this year that we’re going to have an earlier onset of our pollen cycle. The tree pollination cycle usually begins in mid-April but honestly is we continue on our current trend I believe that’s going to be sooner. We’re also seeing higher levels of pollen, and more prolonged cycles.”
As we previously reported, last year was a very high pollen content year.
Demain: “Our birch levels traditionally are some of the highest in the world. Over the past few years and especially last year our levels were not only very high but very sustained. So we look at high levels when pollen grains are more than 175 per cubic meter, we were seeing levels of over 2,000 per cubic meters and that was sustained for four or five weeks.”
Demain said another trend studies have identified is more potent pollens.