Sunday, April 27, 2008

How do I find out about the pollen counts?

My office posts the pollen counts each weekday at http://www.aaaai.org/nab/index.cfm?p=allergengraph&stationid=154&startdatevalue=30. We are a certified member of the National Allergy Bureau's network of pollen counting stations across the U.S. There are other sites that do pollen counts, but they may not be certified through the NAB, which has a rigorous approval process. You can access all of the approved stations through the same link above if you are interested in the count in another city. If you search or follow the news, you may notice that the counts in the local newspapers, radios, television stations, and even the Weather channel are the same as ours. That's because we send our report to them daily. Comment: the website pollen.com is not a reliable source in my opinion. The units used are not valid. The sources are not listed. Comment #2: mold spores are a significant source of allergic inflammation in the nose and chest, however the counts for mold spores are often not reliable. There are two main reasons for this. First, the apparatus used to count both pollen and mold spores is significantly more expensive and complex, so most sites choose not to invest in the equipment. Second, the number of species of molds exceeds 50,000, so identification is much more difficult and time consuming. Again, most sites choose not to spend the time and effort required. This includes our site. Regretably, we can only make our best estimate of the mold spore counts given the limitations from time and the equipment.

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