Climate change is impacting Europe’s pollen season and aggravating people’s hay fever — one of the many health consequences of a heating planet detailed in a major study published Wednesday.
An earlier pollen season — which in the past decade has begun one-to-two weeks ahead of the 1991–2001 period — combined with higher pollen concentrations are exacerbating symptoms such as itchy eyes and throats, sinusitis and wheezy chests, increasing the risk of asthma attacks.
Worsening hay fever is just one in a series of escalating climate-related threats to human health identified by climate scientists in the annual Lancet Countdown report published Wednesday.
Earlier pollen seasons are “a warning sign” that climate change is already affecting our day-to-day lives, José Chen, a research fellow for Lancet Countdown Europe, told POLITICO.
