High ozone levels aggravate allergies

High ozone levels aggravate allergies. Pollution could cause more and more allergies.

(23.08.2010) As can be learned from a scientific study, high ozone levels also aggravate allergies. Due to the high ozone value, the allergen content of the plant also increases, thereby simultaneously increasing the symptoms of an allergy. In addition, far more people could be affected by allergies if ozone levels increase.

Researchers from the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology of the Medical University of Vienna report in the current issue of the journal "Journal of Allergy Cilinical Immunology" that high ozone levels not only pollute the throat and respiratory tract, but also increase the allergen content of plants. If the ozone level in the air has risen, so does the allergen content in plants, as researchers around study leader Rudolf Valenta have observed in a study. Thus, a connection between the pollution and the rise of allergies could now be detected.

During the course of the study, the researchers had grown rye varieties with a high level of ozone-laden air in the laboratory. The ozone value was 79 parts ozone per one billion air particles. This corresponds roughly to peak ozone levels on very hot summer days. For comparison, the experiment was repeated later and two rye plants were grown at average normal ozone levels. Here, the value was 22 parts per one billion particles of air. In the direct comparison of the experimental arrangements, the Viennese scientists found that the rye varieties with the high ozone load showed an increase of allergen and protein.

In the further course of the experiment the protein extracts of the plant were combined with antibodies of the human immune system of patients with allergies. It was found that the extracts reacted more strongly to the IgE antibodies responsible for allergies than the plants that grew under a low ozone load. The plants from the first group were thus clearly allergenic, as the researchers report. It also showed that the plants not only aggravate the symptoms of allergy patients, but also cause an increase in allergies in humans at a high ozone concentration.

Patients with pollen allergy suffer from hay fever, which is associated with swelling of the nasal mucous membranes, sneezing and conjunctivitis of the eyes. Above all, the accompanying itching is perceived as torturous by patients, in addition to the feeling of fatigue and fatigue. (Sb)

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Image: Oliver Haja.