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environment- human interactions, as the consequence of a combination of environmental factors, like air pollution, global warming, urbanisation and microclimatic
variability, which create a multi-resolution spatiotemporal system that requires new
processing technologies and huge data inflow in order to be thoroughly investigated.
We suggest that novel, real-time, personalised pollen information services, like
mobile-app risk alerts, must be developed to provide the optimum first line of
allergy management.
Keywords Climate change · Environmental medicine · Pollen allergy
Highlights
• Climate change contributes significantly to increasing allergy prevalence
worldwide.
• This chapter overviews the emerging challenges with regard to allergic
diseases.
• More abundant and more allergenic pollen over time will affect allergic patients.
• New allergenic pollen and spatial shifts in pollen occurrence will increase
sensitisation.
• Real-time pollen risk alerts are needed as the first line of allergy management.
3.1 Introduction
International reports have documented a progressive global increase in the burden
of allergic diseases across the industrialised world over the past half century. Clinical
evidence reveals a general increase in both the incidence and the prevalence of
respiratory diseases, including allergic rhinitis and asthma (Bieber et al. 2016;
Bunne et al. 2017; Burney et al. 1994; Ninan and Russell 1992; Strachan and Ross
Anderson 1992; Wüthrich et al. 1995). Such phenomena may be related not only to
air pollution and changes in lifestyle, but also to an actual increase in the amount
and allergenicity of airborne allergenic pollen (Ziello et al. 2012; Beck et al. 2013).
However, the exact relationship between these factors is not yet clear. The amount
of allergenic pollen has increased in specific bioclimatic regions or for specific pollen types (Ziello et al. 2012), and allergenicity has been documented for only some
pollutants and plant species (e.g. the ozone impact on birch; Beck et al. 2013). A
large gap in our knowledge still exists regarding global trends across different biogeographical regions and for a wider diversity of pollen taxa. In addition, because
of ongoing climate change, emerging challenges must be dealt with, such as newly
introduced allergenic pollen, changing environmental parameters leading to unpredictable changing health effects, an urgent need for allergy risk alerts, and personalised environmental medicine services. In this chapter, we provide an overview of
the state of the art of this topic and discuss multi-disciplinary and timely interaction
between humans and the environment.
A. Damialis et al.
environment- human interactions, as the consequence of a combination of environmental factors, like air pollution, global warming, urbanisation and microclimatic
variability, which create a multi-resolution spatiotemporal system that requires new
processing technologies and huge data inflow in order to be thoroughly investigated.
We suggest that novel, real-time, personalised pollen information services, like
mobile-app risk alerts, must be developed to provide the optimum first line of
allergy management.
Keywords Climate change · Environmental medicine · Pollen allergy
Highlights
• Climate change contributes significantly to increasing allergy prevalence
worldwide.
• This chapter overviews the emerging challenges with regard to allergic
diseases.
• More abundant and more allergenic pollen over time will affect allergic patients.
• New allergenic pollen and spatial shifts in pollen occurrence will increase
sensitisation.
• Real-time pollen risk alerts are needed as the first line of allergy management.
3.1 Introduction
International reports have documented a progressive global increase in the burden
of allergic diseases across the industrialised world over the past half century. Clinical
evidence reveals a general increase in both the incidence and the prevalence of
respiratory diseases, including allergic rhinitis and asthma (Bieber et al. 2016;
Bunne et al. 2017; Burney et al. 1994; Ninan and Russell 1992; Strachan and Ross
Anderson 1992; Wüthrich et al. 1995). Such phenomena may be related not only to
air pollution and changes in lifestyle, but also to an actual increase in the amount
and allergenicity of airborne allergenic pollen (Ziello et al. 2012; Beck et al. 2013).
However, the exact relationship between these factors is not yet clear. The amount
of allergenic pollen has increased in specific bioclimatic regions or for specific pollen types (Ziello et al. 2012), and allergenicity has been documented for only some
pollutants and plant species (e.g. the ozone impact on birch; Beck et al. 2013). A
large gap in our knowledge still exists regarding global trends across different biogeographical regions and for a wider diversity of pollen taxa. In addition, because
of ongoing climate change, emerging challenges must be dealt with, such as newly
introduced allergenic pollen, changing environmental parameters leading to unpredictable changing health effects, an urgent need for allergy risk alerts, and personalised environmental medicine services. In this chapter, we provide an overview of
the state of the art of this topic and discuss multi-disciplinary and timely interaction
between humans and the environment.
A. Damialis et al.