Reduce Your Exposure to Pollen
Many people have experienced the runny nose, itchy throat, sneezing, and red watery eyes associated with seasonal allergies. Pollen is a leading cause of allergies, and no matter the season – except during an icy winter – pollen is around. It is not possible to completely avoid pollen, but you can reduce your overall exposure to it to help minimize allergic reactions.
Contents
Steps
Choosing When to Be Outside
- Check the pollen count. Allergy websites and most local weather reports often provide a pollen count for the day or week. A high pollen count means that there is an especially large amount of pollen in the air that day. This is a valuable source of information for those prone to allergy. If high pollen counts are forecasted, start taking allergy medications before your symptoms start.
- Plan outdoors activities for low-pollen times. Pollen count generally increases around mid-spring and stays high throughout the summer. However, different trees, grasses and blossoms can be especially allergy-producing at different times of the year. Find out what varieties of trees, plants and grasses are growing around you, and what time of year they tend to pollinate. You can research your area on the internet or ask a local garden store or landscape professional. Plan any hikes, camping trips, and major gardening projects for lower-pollen times.
- Pollen levels tend to spike in the early morning. When possible, schedule outdoor activities for late morning or, better yet, midday.
- If you live in the southern hemisphere, watch for higher pollen count during October to March for grasses and August to March for tree pollens.
- Stay indoors when it’s very windy. Wind carries pollen quickly and often from far away. Even if you don’t have trees or grasses in your immediate area, a strong wind can blow pollen in from a great distance. Silver Birch pollen, for instance, is very small and is easily transported for long distances by wind. Pollen levels can be especially high on hot, dry, windy days.
- Plan your day in advance. This is especially important if you know you're going to be in high-pollen areas like parks and gardens. Gardens, parks, forests, and meadows are simply the areas with the highest concentration of pollen, so avoid them when you can. But if you absolutely have to attend an event such as a Plan the Perfect Outdoor Wedding at the height of the pollen season, prepare for the day accordingly.
- Take allergy medicine in advance, wear sunglasses to protect your eyes, or accessorize with a head scarf to keep pollen out of your hair.
- Take allergy medicine. There are numerous over-the-counter allergy medications like Claritin, but it's still wise to speak with your doctor about your allergies. They can suggest the best allergy medication for you, and explain possible side effects. Keep your allergy medicine with you so you can take it right when symptoms start. Preferably, however, take allergy medicine before symptoms start - go ahead with your medicine when the pollen count is high or you know you'll be exposed to a lot of pollen throughout your day.
Protecting Your Home from Pollen
- Close your windows. Your goal is to keep the pollen that is outside, outside. Keep your car windows and house windows closed and use air conditioning instead, especially when the pollen count is high or you’re in the midst of pollen season. Unfortunately, this comes at an additional financial cost, so decide how often you want to use this method.
- Alternatively, have a new and efficient air filter added to the air intake of your car, so that you can use outside air to circulate around the car instead of air conditioning.
- If you don’t have air conditioning in your home, it may help to swap bedrooms with a housemate whose room faces the fewest allergy-producing trees and plants. It will help to reduce the exposure when you let fresh air into your room.
- Change your clothes promptly at the end of the day. Pollen collects on your skin and clothes when you’re outside, so when you get home remove your day clothes immediately and toss them in the hamper or washing machine. This will prevent the spread of hitchhiking pollen to the couch, your bed, and other clothes. Wash your clothes before wearing them again.
- Use an electric dryer or indoor clothes line instead of drying your laundry outdoors.
- You may also want to leave your shoes at the door after spending time outside to avoid tracking pollen indoors.
- Wash your hair before going to bed. Pollen not only settles on your clothes throughout the day, but also on your skin and in your hair. Going to bed with pollen in your hair will transfer that pollen to your pillow, and you'll sleep with your face in pollen all night long. A soap-free rinse in the shower before bed will do the trick to remove pollen from your skin, but for the best defense overnight wash your hair, as well.
- Change your bedding often. Sheets, blankets, comforters, and especially pillowcases should be changed often, at least on a weekly basis if not twice per week. Thoroughly wash bedding before reusing. Have spare sets of bedding so you can swap the sets out often without overwhelming yourself with doing laundry every three days. Keeping a clean, pollen-free bed will protect you from inhaling pollen all night long.
- Groom your pets regularly. Your dog, outdoors cat, rabbit, ferret, or other loveable pet can easily track pollen into the house. Commit to brushing them daily to remove as many allergens as possible from their fur, especially if they sleep in bed with you. Groom them in a wood or tiled area so that you can easily clean up without hair and pollen getting into the carpet.
- Vacuum every week. No amount of washing and prevention will stop all pollen from entering your home. Vacuum at least once a week to help remove the residual pollen that’s carried inside on people and pets. Use a vacuum cleaner with a small-particle or HEPA filter.
Minimizing Effects of Pollen in Your Garden
- Cut your grass short. Mow your lawn regularly to discourage the growth of flowers and weeds. Manually cut or pull up any tall grasses that you didn’t specifically plant, as grass pollen causes allergies as much as tree and flower pollen. Use the mower on a short setting to keep grass trimmed and tamed.
- Have someone mow for you, if you can. Paying your neighbor’s kid to mow for you will save you from pollen exposure and provide them with a responsible and profitable activity!
- Plant low-allergy plants in your garden. Various grasses—like rye grass, Bermuda grass, and Johnson grass—are worse for causing allergies. Replace them with low growing plants that produce less pollen, like Irish moss, bunchgrass, or dichondra. If your garden contains any other high-allergy culprits, replace them or at least prune or remove their blooms.
- When you're done gardening, leave your gardening gloves and tools outside so you don’t transport dirt and pollen into the house. If you have an outdoors sink, wash your hands before going indoors, as well.
- Protect your eyes from pollen. When you’re working in the garden be sure not to touch your face or rub your eyes, which will just directly transport pollen to your most susceptible areas. You can also wear well-fitting sunglasses when outside to protect your eyes from pollen landing in them.
- If you know you’re going to be exposed to large amounts of pollen or are severely allergic, wear goggles and an allergy mask – a filtered mask that covers your mouth and nose.
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Tips
- If you are in a job that requires constant contact with pollen, e.g., a gardener, a park attendant, a biologist etc., see your health professional for ongoing treatment.
- See your doctor for a skin prick test to determine which grass or tree pollen or pollens might be bringing on your allergic reactions. This is a relatively easy and inexpensive means of determining your specific allergies.
