Impact of air pollution on symptom severity during the birch, grass and ragweed pollen period in Vienna, Austria: Importance of O3 in 2010–2018

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) 2020-08, Vol.263, p.114526-114526, Article 114526
• Main Authors: Berger, Markus, Bastl, Katharina, Bastl, Maximilian, Dirr, Lukas, Hutter, Hans-Peter, Moshammer, Hanns, Gstöttner, Wolfgang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air quality; Ozone; Pollen allergy; Pollen season; Symptom data
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114526

Air pollution is a threat to the general population, especially to pollen allergy sufferers in urban environments. Different air quality parameters have hitherto been examined which add to the burden of pollen allergy sufferers. Parameters such as NO2, SO2, PM10, PM2.5, and O3 are supposed to have additional impact, not only on health in general (increase in asthma, allergy sensitization frequency), but also on pollen grains (increase of allergenicity). However, it remains unknown if those air quality parameters increase symptom severity during the pollen season. We selected the birch, grass, and ragweed pollen seasons as different time periods throughout the year and analyzed the relationship of symptom data to pollen, air quality, and meteorological data (temperature, relative humidity) for the metropolis of Vienna (Austria). A linear regression model was computed based on different symptom data, and both pollen and air quality data were tested simultaneously. Ozone was positively and significantly associated with symptom scores in all three seasons, whereas this was only rarely the case with other pollutants. Therefore, only ozone was selected for further analysis in a model including meteorological parameters. In this model, effect estimates of ozone were attenuated but remained significant for the grass pollen season. The lack of significance in the other seasons may be attributed to the less numerous symptom data entries and the shorter duration of the pollen seasons for birch and ragweed. All other air quality parameters usually showed lower concentrations during the pollen seasons and displayed little variation. This might explain the lack of a clear signal. Our results suggest that today’s allergic population is already affected by air quality (rising O3 levels). Air quality should be considered as well in pollen information and pollen allergy studies in general because of its increasing importance in the light of global warming. [Display omitted] •NO2, SO2, PM10 and PM2,5 showed no clear effects on symptom data.•O3 showed a significant positive effect on symptoms independent from pollen data.•O3 had an impact on symptom data even after controlling for meteorological data. Air quality data were analyzed together with crowd-sourced symptom data and pollen data and revealed a significant additive effect on the symptom severity of pollen allergy sufferers for ozone, especially during grass pollen seasons.