Biologic Pollution Due to Ambrosia (Ragweed) Pollen in Urban Environment of Bucharest

Polliana Mihaela Leru (), Vlad Florin Anton, Ana Maria Eftimie and Sorin Stefanut
Additional contact information
Polliana Mihaela Leru: Clinical Department 5, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 050474 Bucharest, Romania
Vlad Florin Anton: Department of Allergology, Colentina Clinical Hospital, 020125 Bucharest, Romania
Ana Maria Eftimie: Department of Allergology, Colentina Clinical Hospital, 020125 Bucharest, Romania
Sorin Stefanut: Department of Ecology, Taxonomy and Nature Conservation, Institute of Biology Bucharest, Romanian Academy, 060031 Bucharest, Romania

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-11

Abstract: Ragweed pollen is an important component of biological pollution in the urban environment, responsible for increasing respiratory allergies and significant contribution to the health impact of air pollution in the Bucharest area. The aim of this paper is to present the eight-year ragweed pollen monitoring data from Bucharest, to place them in the context of local air pollution, public health regulations and available data on the health impact of ragweed pollen in the urban environment. Our pollen data were correlated with major air pollutant concentrations and with meteorological factors in a recently published local paper and the clinical data of patients with ragweed-induced respiratory symptoms were collected and published in 2019. The ragweed pollen monitoring data, correlated with field data reported by patients and plant specialists confirm the rapid spread of Ambrosia in the Bucharest city area, in addition to some stringent environmental local problems due to air pollution. The number of patients addressed to allergists almost doubled from one year to another, confirming the real alarming health impact of this environmental hazard. Our study confirms the need for more coherent strategies to control ragweed spread, based on application of existing local and international regulations, air pollution control and evaluation of consequences on human health.

Keywords: aeroallergens; air pollution; Ambrosia (ragweed) pollen; biologic pollution; urban environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10613/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10613/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10613-:d:897522

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().