How Japan Fights Back Against Hay Fever

Bosworth theorized a connection between asthma and hay fever.

Surgical masks are ubiquitous in Japan, particularly during hay fever season.

Research shows that hay fever is exacerbated when pollen mixes with other pollutants in the air, another reason why the highest hay fever rates are found in cities, even though they typically have lower pollen counts than rural areas.

Image license Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY SA 2.0). City Dwellers Experience the Worst Hay Fever

Hay fever sufferers in Japan have no shortage of products to choose from. Photo from Flickr user Andrea Hale.

Now, pollen from plants, which are wind dispersed like trees and grasses and so on tend to cause the most hay fever.

Each day, the battle rages on. The hay fever season winds up around May, bringing much needed relief to those with pollen allergies.

While one might expect hay fever to be more common in rural areas with a lot of trees, in fact the opposite is true.

Another contributing factor to Japan's hay fever problem is air pollution. In addition to exhaust gas emissions, PM2.5 pollution from China is an ongoing problem in Japan.

Floating in the springtime air is a cloud of pollen grains that induce sneezing, sniffling, and itchy eyes and noses in hay fever sufferers all over the Japanese archipelago.

But as the cedar and cypress trees (and their pollen) are unlikely to be going anywhere in the near future, Japan can expect another round of hay fever misery next year.

Here's the cedar pollen front. The Japan Times reports an estimated one quarter of Japan s population of 123 million people suffer from seasonal hay fever. But it hasn't always been this way.

It isn't flowers that cause hay fever in Japan. The culprit is pollen from trees, in particular the Japanese cedar or sugi (杉, Cryptomeria japonica) and Japanese cypress or hinoki (檜, Chamaecyparis obtusa).

Most pollen that causes hay fever for us is from plants that use the wind to disseminate the pollen, and that's a very inefficient process, which is why it gets up our noses so much.

But the blossoms aren't the only thing making their way across Japan as the weather starts to warm up. Clouds of pollen also move from north to south, wreaking havoc on hay fever sufferers' sinuses in the process.

The rise of hay fever is closely linked to Japan s forestation policy after World War II. As the nation rebuilt itself, demand for timber surged, and cedar and cypress were the trees of choice for the forestry industry.

Now that's not just deaf children. That could be any child who's got a cold, glue ear, an ear infection, even hay fever. On a given day, one in eight children fall into that group, on any given day.

A severe hay fever sufferer's day begins with careful preparation. Take your medicine, apply Vaseline to your nostrils, put on your mask and sunglasses and step outside. Let your guard down for just a moment and it's game over.

The Hay Diet is a nutrition method developed by the New York physician William Howard Hay in the 1920s.

Pollen goes unnoticed by most of us, except when hay fever strikes. But microscopes reveal it comes in stunning colors and shapes and travels remarkably well. Jonathan Drori gives an up close glimpse of these fascinating flecks of plant courtship.

I have a fever.

You have no fever.

For western and eastern Japan (including Tokyo), hay fever season starts between late January and mid February, as the weather begins to warm up. Cedar pollen production peaks in late March to early April and then steadily declines, while cypress pollination lags behind by about a month.

At least hay fever sufferers have a wide array of products, such as masks and goggles, to choose from to aid them in their fight against pollen. Japanese company Unipac has even developed an air conditioner filter capable of absorbing about 99 percent pollen within an hour.

You don't have a fever.

Do you have a fever?

My forehead burned with fever.

The fever is usually higher than .

Mr. Terence Hay Edie (UNDP Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme)

The Committee further noted that remote sensing technology was used for tracking Rift Valley fever, dengue fever and other infectious diseases.

Tom is in bed with a fever.

Inn par Lanat ho Khuda ki .. inkee zarurat b nahee hay (That's great.

We sent against them a single Scream , and they became like crushed hay .

We sent against them a single Scream , and they became like crushed hay .

She came back after ten days of fever, right? Still has the fever, and she's hypoxic she doesn't have much oxygen in her lungs.

As you have a fever, you'd better stay home.

As you have a fever, you'd better stay home.

Asia has been gripped by election fever all year.

This disease (the stigma) is worse than the fever.

O'Laughlen died in prison of yellow fever in 1867.

Wheeler is a village in Dunn County, Wisconsin, United States, along the Hay River.

On the contrary, they suggest that suppressing fever may occasionally produce harmful effects, and conclude that widespread use of drugs to reduce fever should not be encouraged.

Symptoms are typified by diarrhoea with fever, and acute enteritis.

Tetanus, measles, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, hepatitis B, yellow fever.