How to ＂solve＂ pollen allergy？ Please refer to this ＂index＂

"There are allergic babies at home, and this pollen index is too practical!" "Others are talking about where to look at flowers, only you are intimate about risks!" ….. Recently, citizens in Chengdu, Sichuan Province have left messages under the articles on the park city pollen index published by WeChat.

On the one hand, it is the spring when the sun is warm and flowers are blooming, on the other hand, it is the symptom of pollen allergy caused by sneezing and runny nose. The number of people suffering from pollen allergy in spring has an increasing trend. How to effectively reduce pollen allergy, accurately monitor pollen concentration and take precautions has become a very concerned issue for many citizens.

The reporter learned from the Chengdu Park Urban Construction Administration that in order to guide the citizens to travel healthily, the bureau released the park city pollen index for the first time after releasing the ginkgo viewing index, the wintersweet viewing index and the spring flower viewing index.

More beautiful city, more precise care

In February 2018, when inspecting Tianfu New District, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader specifically pointed out that "highlighting the characteristics of park cities and taking ecological values into account". Since then, Chengdu has put forward the construction of a "park city" for the first time in the country. In recent years, Chengdu has a new orientation-"building a park city demonstration area that practices new development concepts", and constantly explores new modes of urban development from theory to practice, which embodies the logic of people-centered urban development.

According to the relevant staff of Chengdu Park Urban Construction Administration, with the continuous advancement of Chengdu Park Urban Construction, the this beautiful city prospect of "flowers are heavy and golden officials" is also constantly enriched and expanded. In 2021, for example, Chengdu implemented 2888 greening projects, adding 1800 hectares of green space and 200,000 square meters of three-dimensional greening. 200 demonstration sites of "Jinjiao Yinbian" were built, and 43 scenic spots of sub-streets and lanes in the First Ring Road were upgraded. Set up a long-term flower border of 60,000 square meters, and complete the three-dimensional greening of the collision wall of the First and Second Ring Road for 28 kilometers. By the end of last year, 1,284 hectares of new green space and 180,000 square meters of three-dimensional greening had been completed.

While the increasing green area brings good feelings to the public, every spring, citizens complain that they have suffered from hay fever. More beautiful cities also need more "accurate" care. With the support of Chengdu Park Urban Construction Administration, several "post-90s" in the pollen index monitoring project team of Chengdu Botanical Garden combined with their own majors and turned into "pollen spokespersons".

Dig deeper into more understandable popular science.

Li Mengxia, head of the pollen index monitoring project team of Chengdu Botanical Garden, and members of the project team began to study the pollen index last spring. She told reporters that through previous research, they learned that 58.2% of allergic rhinitis in Chengdu was caused by pollen. In recent years, the incidence of pollen allergy in China has been increasing, with allergic cases occurring from 4-month-old infants to people over 60 years old, and the number of patients may exceed 200 million.

It is understood that pollen allergy refers to a series of allergic diseases caused by pollen floating in the air after contact with human body, such as allergic rhinitis, allergic skin rash, bronchitis and asthma, etc. Pollen disease has become a seasonal epidemic disease with a fairly high incidence.

Li Mengxia said that "insect-pollinated flowers" mainly rely on insects such as butterflies and bees, and "wind-pollinated flowers" mainly rely on wind to spread pollen. Most of the "culprits" of pollen allergy in spring are odorless, colorless and tasteless "wind-pollinated flowers". Because the pollen yield of these plants is large and blown high and far by the wind, they are easy to be inhaled into the respiratory tract and cause allergies. This kind of plants mainly include Platanus acerifolia, cypress, poplar, fir, Broussonetia papyrifera, wormwood, etc., but there are also a few plants with strong fragrance that can cause pollen allergy, such as heather.

To this end, Li Mengxia and his colleagues learned from the experience of pollen concentration detection in Beijing and other places, and chose to set up observation points at the highest point of key parks to collect the values of pollen concentration. Then, referring to the experience and achievements of relevant scientific research institutions, the pollen concentration value is established as the park city pollen index in a more accessible way, which is used to guide citizens to travel.

It is understood that the pollen index released this time is divided into 6 levels according to the pollen concentration, with the pollen concentration below 50 grains per thousand square millimeters as the index level 1 and the pollen concentration above 800 grains per thousand square millimeters as the index level 6, which is the highest level. In addition, corresponding representative colors are set for each level, such as yellow for the third level, orange for the fourth level and red for the fifth level.

Explore more livable environment.

"In addition to pollen, as the temperature rises, the flying season is also coming. Recently, the main tree species of flying catkins in our city is willow … For most healthy people, the existence of flying catkins will not have much impact, but for people with special physique, it will cause allergic symptoms. " In the third phase of the park city pollen index released by Chengdu, in addition to the level of the pollen index, the main tree species that may cause allergies in the city in the near future were also announced.

It is understood that the current release cycle of the park city pollen index is once every two months in spring and autumn and once a month in Xia Dong season. The monitoring results of the pollen index monitoring project team of Chengdu Botanical Garden show that at present, the pollen index in most areas of Chengdu has reached level 4, and the pollen concentration in areas where sensitized plants are densely distributed will reach level 5. The main allergic plants in Chengdu in the first half of April are poplar, Broussonetia papyrifera, cypress, ginkgo, pine, fir and Ligustrum lucidum. Poplar, Broussonetia papyrifera, Ginkgo biloba, etc. are changing from full flowering period to late flowering period, while cypress and pine trees are entering full flowering period one after another. Although their flowers are inconspicuous, the amount of pollen is very large.

When talking about the next step, Li Mengxia said that because the pollen index work in Chengdu is in the primary exploration stage, there are not many team members at present, and the set flower viewing points are limited, so the scientificity and coverage need to be further improved. I hope that we can further cooperate with experienced cities and universities with scientific research strength in the future, so as to improve the level of pollen index serving the people.

One of the important goals of park city construction is to improve the quality of life of citizens. For Chengdu, the preliminary study of pollen index is not only an attempt to integrate urban space with good ecology, but also a reflection of the practice of serving the people in fine urban management.

(Image courtesy of Chengdu Park Urban Construction Administration)