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Pollen Counts May Increase Drastically in Next 50 Years
People who battle pollen and ragweed today may have it easy compared to what allergy sufferers will have to deal with 50 years from now, according to a March 2002 study by Harvard Medical School researchers.
The researchers claim that rising levels of carbon dioxide, an affect of global warming, will cause an increase in the production of pollen in plants, producing more allergens and possibly more allergy sufferers.
The study, published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, found that ragweed grown in an atmosphere with double the current carbon dioxide levels produced 61 percent more pollen than normal. Some scientists expect a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide to occur between 2050 and 2100, the report said.
The researchers grew ragweed plants from seeds in two different enclosed environments -- one was maintained at 350 parts carbon dioxide to a million parts air (roughly the current atmospheric level).
The other module was maintained at 700 parts carbon dioxide to a million parts air.
Ragweed is one of the most common allergens in North America, and is the cause of runny noses and sneezing for millions of those allergic to pollen.
"The side effects of carbon dioxide, as well as its impact on heat budget and the water cycle, have to be taken very seriously," said Paul Epstein, MD, Harvard Medical School instructor in medicine and associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at HMS in a news release. "I believe this study can help us understand the true costs of burning fossil fuels."
"Rising carbon dioxide levels may skew the whole ecological community by affecting reproductive power," Epstein said. The study highlights the need to reduce carbon dioxide levels. "Carbon dioxide is greater than it has been for 420,000 years."
"We're outside the envelope, we're pushing the envelope on the terrestrial feedback mechanisms that have drawn down carbon dioxide," Epstein said. "This all points to our need to change our energy diet." |
