Keywords
pollen categories
pollinosis
warnings for people allergic to pollen
Poaceae
Urticaceae
How to Cite
Abstract
The incidence of pollinosis in developed countries has been on the rise for the past few decades. It is an illness that leads to a large number of missed work and school days. Therefore, in addition to the direct costs associated therewith, it also causes significant indirect costs. Avoidance to exposure is the most effective preventive measure. With aerobiological data for homogeneous geographical areas, sick people can both take preventive measures and optimize the period of usage of drugs and thus improve the quality of their life. Aerobiological networks have to decide how to provide this information. In the case of information intended for the general public, it is more useful to give it as concentration ranges adjusted to categories of low, medium and high/very high threshold values than as specific numerical values, which might not achieve the desired goal.
In this paper we have analyzed the data generated by the Aerobiological Network of the Region of Murcia, Spain, from aerobiological databases in the 2010-2016 period. Based on the analysis of the 90, 95, 97 and 99 percentiles of the time series, we have proposed threshold values —in four levels (low, medium, high and very high), for the Poaceae and Urticaceae pollen types in the towns of Cartagena, Lorca and Murcia— that enhance the information supplied by said Aerobiological Network and are aimed at allowing allergic people to take avoidance and pharmacological treatment measures.
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