Mainstreet Pharmacy Taupō staff with over-the-counter antihistamine medicine in background. Photo / Mainstreet Pharmacy Taupō
Mainstreet Pharmacy Taupō staff with over-the-counter antihistamine medicine in background. Photo / Mainstreet Pharmacy Taupō
Early spring arrives and the blame game starts.
Is it the pine trees or the grass, maybe it's the birch trees planted throughout the neighbourhood? According to the Allergy New Zealand website, it was probably the pine tree pollen in August with a whole lot more trees set to join the pollen release in September.
Last week in Taupō pollen settled on cars and the outside of houses. Some customers at Mainstreet Taupō Pharmacy reported the pollen probably came from pine trees. Some said it came from pine trees at Acacia Bay, while others didn't know where the pollen came from.
Managing director and pharmacist Ayman Ibousi said customers have been coming in for antihistamines, eye drops and nasal sprays to combat the effects of allergies. He says requests for anti-allergy medicine normally dips in winter but this year there had been a fairly consistent demand.
He advises talking to a health professional about the best way to combat pollen-related allergies.
"There is a medicine that children as young as six months old can take, but you need to check in to make sure it isn't a cold."
He says antihistamines seem to work best when taken with either or both a nasal spray and eye drops.
Pollen dust in Tūrangi on Monday August 30, 2021. Photo / Kevin Griffiths.
In September the pollen can also come from macrocarpas, gorse, Japanese cypress, poplars, oak, elms, New Zealand beech trees, New Zealand coprosma, maple trees and sycamores, plantain, grass, and fungus spores. Pollen release occurs nine months of the year, with different plants releasing pollen during this time.
Reproducing is the end game in nature and pollen has the role of transporting male sex cells to a receptive female plant. Trees send out waves of wind-blown pollen, and as there are so many pine trees in the Taupō district, this plays out to there being a lot of wind-blown pine pollen.
Bees also transport pollen and as they hardly drop any, us humans hardly even notice bee-borne pollen.
Pollen clouds over Acacia Bay in 2020. Photo / Susan Dalby
But the worse is yet to come. Many people who suffer from pollen allergies are specifically allergic to birch tree pollen and this is released in October and November.
According to Allergy New Zealand, a typical residential area that is roughly 30 years old contains 45 birch trees for every kilometre of street.
"Therefore it is not surprising to find a concentration of birch pollen as high as 4000 grains per cubic metre of air at the height of its flowering period," according to Allergy New Zealand.
Allergies are most likely to be triggered when trees release pollen, and that tends to be on warm, dry, windy days. Rain has the effect of washing the air clean of pollen.
The time of day also affects how people react to pollen. The Allergy New Zealand website says pollen concentrations are typically lowest at 6am, increasing to a peak at 12 noon and decreasing through the afternoon and evening.
Ayman said increased mask-wearing due to Covid-19 would help keep allergens at bay, however he said many people reported they weren't wearing a mask when out doing daily exercise under level 4 restrictions.
"It's also hard to wear a mask when out for a walk if you have a runny nose because of an allergy," said Ayman.
