Roger Moroney: 'Tis the season of pollen clouds and hay fever

Pine pollen being blown by the wind above a pine plantation. Photo / Duncan Brown

There's something (yellow) in the air...and plenty of it.
COMMENT:

If I had any poetic skill (or licence, for that matter) I could start this dusty meandering with a poem.

But I haven't, so I'll start it with this instead.

There's naughty pollen everywhere,
It's on the car and in the air,
It's up me nose and in me throat,
It certainly does not get my vote.

Indeed, it is the season of the pollen clouds, and this year it seems to have come a little earlier than usual, although the allergy boffins do say it tends to kick off at the end of July or early August.

Which I daresay is right ... it's just that it appears to be a lot more intense than usual this year, and the boffins have conceded that also.

I have never before seen the coats of yellow dust so prevalent and intense in the latter stages of any previous Julys.

And I've never wandered out six hours after hosing nature's little dustbowl gatherings off the car to see another layer starting to appear in its place.

Rain washed pollen into a drain. Photo / Warren Buckland

Mind you, blossom has also started appearing a few weeks earlier than usual and the weather is the culprit, according to some in meteorology circles.

In this eastern region neck of the woods it has been a mild winter, and a very dry one.

There has been a lot of sunshine and a lot of strong wind.

Sort of early spring material, although we're still tasting a few cold days amid the generally milder ones.

Sun and wind...perfect for pollen.

And just the ticket for the manufacturers of antihistamine mixtures.

Must be like Christmas for them.

It's not just pine pollen, which is the usual nominated suspect, for there are a lot of plants out there which produce pollens which are light and in great volumes and which nature has created to be spread by winds.

And, yep, as noted earlier in this tale of watering eyes and hay fever, there has been a lot of wind about.

Winds that head for the coast on the northwesterly and southwesterly streams which cross rural lands which are home to forests and farmlands.

One pollen researcher wrote that the increased planting of olive trees for olive oil production has been a significant factor, as olive pollen is a toughie to deal with. Photo / File

I checked out the producers of pollen and the list is impressive.

There are 11 grass pollen varieties, five weed pollen varieties and 22 tree pollen
producers.

And while the spring, and this early yellow-smeared run-up to spring, is the severe time for the stuff, it does occur across an average of about 34 weeks a year.

One thing that has been a factor is the introduction of new plant and tree species into the country, because that means new forms of the stuff can be created.

One pollen researcher wrote that the increased planting of olive trees for olive oil production has been a significant factor, as olive pollen is a bit of a toughie to deal with.

High pollen levels can make spring time miserable for hay fever sufferers. Photo / File

Another researcher has said the pollen count is on the rise, the season is getting longer, that this country has some of the highest rates of hay fever in the world, and there is evidence to suggest it is getting worse.

I came across a chap some years ago who, with his family, moved here from the Bay of Plenty and started a business.

They loved the lifestyle and opportunities here, but after a couple of years the springtimes of yellow aerial fever took their toll, and they returned.

The business is still going though and he heads back from time to time as it didn't knock him around too much, but his wife and kids ... no no ... it really hammered them.

A lot of people are susceptible, some more extremely than others and it is an annual battle.

I use an antihistamine called VB Draught and it tends to allay some of the airborne woes but the worst, I suspect, is yet to arrive because while we have the wind and the dry and the sun, we have yet to get the humidity.

The stuff loves it.

Roger Moroney rues the start of the pollen and hay fever season.

And so ...

Time for another chemist visit,
For the yellow clouds are here,
And time for a wash-down med' of course,
I wonder if they stock beer?

• Roger Moroney is an award-winning journalist for Hawke's Bay Today and observer of the slightly off-centre.