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late 1980s to about 30% at the end of the 1990s among patients with inhalation
allergic diseases in Vienna, Austria (Buters et al. 2008).
Because of these factors, there is already awareness of the threats posed through
the establishment and expansion of ragweed populations in Europe and, conse-
quently, a European Commission Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)
Action FA1203 ‘SMARTER’ (http://ragweed.eu) was approved in order to deal
with this international problem. Among other goals, it aimed to describe the existing
status of the threat, assess the European pollen abundance levels of ragweed, and
attempt to make recommendations for the sustainable management of Ambrosia
plants across Europe. Sikoparija et al. (2017), within this COST Action, have
recently implied that only a few significant trends in the magnitude and frequency
of atmospheric Ambrosia pollen exist at present (8% for the mean sum of daily aver-
age Ambrosia pollen concentrations and 14% for the mean number of days that
Ambrosia pollen were recorded in the air). The direction of any trends (increasing
or decreasing) varied locally.
Nonetheless, even in regions where ragweed has not yet been established, the
probability of this occurring in the near future is quite high. For example, in
Germany, which is located near the main source of ragweed pollen, the Pannonian
Plain, ragweed does not seem to be as abundant, and therefore as noxious, yet as for
neighbouring countries. As reported by Haftenberger in 2013, from the population-
based German Health Study DEGS, IgE sensitisation rates to A. artimisiifolia were
8.2% of German adults, and this prevalence is quickly rising, with even very low
concentrations (5–10 pollen grains per m3 of air) being sufficient to trigger allergic
reactions in sensitive patients. Thus, ragweed pollen may represent a new allergen,
potentially responsible for new asthma incidents, and expected to occur much more
frequently than other pollen types (Sikoparija et al. 2017).
Fig. 3.2 Ragweed
(Ambrosia artemisiifolia)
plant, stems, leaves and
flowers
3 Climate Change and Pollen Allergies
Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change
- Titel
- Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change
- Autoren
- Melissa Marselle
- Jutta Stadler
- Horst Korn
- Katherine Irvine
- Aletta Bonn
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-030-02318-8
- Abmessungen
- 15.5 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 508
- Schlagwörter
- Environment, Environmental health, Applied ecology, Climate change, Biodiversity, Public health, Regional planning, Urban planning
- Kategorien
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima