Due to the mild temperatures, the first trees are flowering earlier than usual this year. This is causing an increase in pollen count and some allergy sufferers are already experiencing symptoms. In order to measure the pollen count in the air, the pollen service relies on so-called pollen traps. These allow samples to be continuously taken from the air; a plastic strip coated with a carrier film ensures that the pollen and other airborne dust particles that are sucked in adhere. This airborne dust strip is analysed in the laboratory in order to provide the most reliable forecasts possible for allergy sufferers.
New trap for MedUni Vienna
A pollen trap of this kind was previously only available in Vienna on the Hohe Warte. Now MedUni Vienna has its own trap on the roof of the Forensic Medicine building. "We are focusing more on the city centre, and we are well positioned here with the trap in the 9th district; the Hohe Warte is already a bit on the periphery," explains Maximilian Bastl, Head of the Pollen Service at MedUni Vienna. The new pollen warning service "Pollen Service Vienna" focuses exclusively on pollen counts in the city - and that makes perfect sense. In cities, intensive traffic pollution causes more air pollution, which means that allergy sufferers react more strongly, explains Michaela Ranta, senior physician at the allergy outpatient clinic at Feldkirch Regional Hospital.
Different pollen count in the city than in the countryside
"Vienna is a big city, and the metropolis is also a heat island. This means that the temperature in the city can be higher than in the surrounding countryside. And these few degrees difference can play a decisive role. For example, the flowering of a particular plant can start earlier than elsewhere," says Bastl, describing the peculiarities of pollen dispersal in the city. In addition, planting in the city is also different to that in the countryside.
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Source: red, wien.ORF.at, red, vorarlberg.ORF.at