With climate change likely to make Canberra's pollen season worse, expert calls for better monitoring

An image of a woman sitting in a field of flowers, sneezing into a handkerchief
16 November 2020

With global warming likely to make Canberra's pollen season worse, an expanded network of monitoring stations would help authorities make better public health warnings for people with hay fever and asthma, the city's leading pollen expert says.

It comes after the city has recorded a string of days with extreme pollen concentrations, the most intense period of pollen concentration in the decade since records started.

The Australian National University's Professor Simon Haberle said additional monitoring stations would help people understand when and where pollen was its worst.

"There's no point in mowing all the grass down and cutting all the trees down. That's not a solution. That's not what we advocate at all. It's just better planning and better understanding of what causes these higher pollen days, and that can help immensely," Professor Haberle said.

Read the full article on the Canberra Times website, featuring Prof Simon Haberle

Updated:  16 November 2020/Responsible Officer:  College of Science/Page Contact:  https://iceds.anu.edu.au/contact