With 28°C this Wednesday in Biarritz, this week spring or even summer temperatures began to register in France. A marker of the increasingly earlier arrival of heat in France, but which also favors the release of pollen.
“The weather is spring this week and the pollen is out,” says the National Aerobiological Surveillance Network (RNSA) on its website. The organization has updated its pollen allergy risk map, confirming this dynamic.
All the departments of metropolitan France have at least a “medium” health impact, with 15 departments in a “high” impact. Among these are the lower rhineHE Belfort Territorythere Upper SaoneHE Maritime AlpsHE VarHE Bouches du RhôneHE vaucluseHE gard, herault, aveyronHE Tarnthere haute garonne, Ariege, the Aude and the Eastern Pyrenees.
Different types of pollen involved
From north to south of France, the types of pollen involved differ. In Alsace, those of birch, hornbeam and ash are the most present. In Haute-Saône and in the Territoire de Belfort, those of charm.
In the southern departments of France, Cupressaceae pollens stand out mainly, among which juniper and cypress stand out.
For allergy sufferers, the gradual arrival of birch pollen on the territory is in any case bad news. The RNSA evokes a “risk of allergy that will evolve between the low level and the high level according to the departments”.
A RNSA press release already warned on March 21 about birch pollen. The season “will begin this week,” warned the chain, which specified that the flowering of gasoline began on March 27 in Paris or Montluçon.
“Birch pollen has a very high allergenic potential that causes allergy sufferers many ocular, nasal and even respiratory symptoms,” continues the RNSA.
a short pause
The significant insolation experienced by France on Wednesday and Thursday promotes the release of pollen into the air. Along with air pollution, symptoms in people can even be exacerbated.
The arrival of the rain from this Thursday, however, will give sensitive people a moment of respite. Modeling maps of France’s exposure to birch pollen show that a pause in spread is expected from March 31.
But that’s not counting its strong comeback starting on April 2, before peaking on April 4. A large part of the country will be subject to a large concentration of birch pollen.
The role of global warming
A note published on February 24 on the website of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition entitled “Impact of climate change: health and society”, shows that global warming and the increase in temperatures that it induces is linked to the amount of pollen that it is released into the air every year.
“The amounts of birch pollen released in March-April depend on temperatures and weather prior to July of the previous year,” the note says.
With a record hot summer in 2022, the amounts of pollen released this year will be logically significant. “This change in temperature has only led to an increase in the amount of birch pollen emitted and therefore an increase in allergies,” the ministry said.
Source: BFM TV
