It needs more than a pollen forecast to ease the proliferation of allergies | Tim Adams

Changes in our lifestyles, from diet to washing habits, and in the world surrounding us, may explain why so many are struggling

The Met Office offers a daily pollen guide, in tones not unlike the storm warning of the shipping forecast: poetic for those not affected, alarming if you are facing a force 8. Saturday’s reads: “The grass pollen risk is on the rise, as more grasses come into flower. Nettle, dock and plantain pollen also airborne. Fungal spores: Cladosporium at increasing risk.”

As someone who grew up sneezing and wheezing through the early summer (and who remembers the Russian roulette of fruitcake-eating with a nut allergy in the years before EpiPens), I have mixed feelings about that information.

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