The number of hay fever sufferers is increasing each year, and many people suffer from symptoms such as coughing and sneezing and itchy eyes during the pollen season.
In addition, since the powder adheres to the laundry, it also affects daily life as it is impossible to dry the laundry outside.
So here are some of the things that bother us about pollen and how to get through the pollen season.
Pollen sticks not only to ventilation but also to clothes and enters the room.
Also, smaller pollen grains tend to enter the room more easily than larger ones.
Windows and ventilation
Laundry and futon drying
Clothes and hair when returning home
Pie Chart Source: "Indoor penetration of pollen and its percentage" published in January 2006 by the Consumer Research Center of Kao Corporation (Assuming the average family of 3 ~ 4 (Open the window and ventilate for 1 hour, clean laundry and futon at home, and people go out enter the room as they are.))
If you dry your laundry outside during the pollen season, it is recommended to do it in the morning when there is less pollen.
On days when it has been raining since morning, the pollen count is low, so it is recommended to open the window and ventilate.
Dry laundry outside until 10 AM, then take it inside and dry it in the room.
Cedar pollen cannot bloom and the amount of pollen decreases, so let's ventilate well on a rainy day.
Source: Pollinosis Environmental Conservation Manual 2009 (Ministry of the Environment) Information provided by Kouji Murayama, Meteorological Business Support Center.
Pollen count in the nose | Pollen count on the conjunctiva | |
---|---|---|
No Mask No Glasses | 1848 pcs | 791 pcs |
Normal Mask Normal glasses | 537 pcs | 460 pcs |
Pollinosis mask Glasses for Pollinosis | 304 pcs | 280 pcs |
To prevent hay fever symptoms, pollen must not be inhaled or stuck to your eyes. Masks and glasses are effective for pollen protection.
Source: "For accurate treatment of hay fever" Kimihiro OKUBO, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Nippon Medical School
Wool clothes tend to carry pollen indoors.
Please avoid wearing it because it has a lot of unevenness and pollen tends to stick to it.
Number of Japanese cedar pollens adhering to various fibers when left outdoors in the daytime for 4 hours*1
Source: Environmental Conservation Manual for Pollinosis 2009 (Ministry of the Environment)
*1 Research supported by grants from the Japan Health Science Foundation in fiscal 2005
*2 Courtesy of Dr. Minoru Okuda, Professor Emeritus, Nippon Medical School
Chemical fibers such as cotton and polyester
* Pollen is cannot easily stick and could easily to fall off
Pollen tends to stick to your hair, so you should wear a hat to prevent it.
During the pollen season, even if you are indoors, pollen can be blown away just by doing daily activities such as dressing, undressing, and putting away futons.
Do not only consider the price but also care for the applicable floor space, the filter life, the durability of the function and choose an air purifier that suits you.
The larger the "Applicable Floor Area", the faster the room will be cleaned. It is recommended to choose "Applicable Floor Area" which is 2 ~ 4 times the size of the room where the air purifier is installed.
If the applicable floor area is 8 tatami mats, it takes 30 minutes to clean an 8 tatami mat room.
If the applicable floor area is 31 tatami mats, it takes 9 minutes to clean an 8 tatami mat room.
The life of an air purifier is about 10 years. Therefore, if the life of the filter is less than 10 years, it is necessary to replace it every time, which is costly and troublesome. I recommend the one with long filter life.
Due to clogging of the filter, the dust collection ability gradually decreases.
It is recommended to choose a large air volume or the one that does not clog the filter easily even after a long use.
Cedar pollen contains two types of allelic substances, Criger 1 and Criger 2.
92.4% of people with hay fever respond to both Criger 1 and Criger 2. It is important to decompose pollen to the core.
Since dust and pollen fall to low places, it is effective to place the air purifier near the floor. As a pollen countermeasure, you can get a high effect if you put it near the entrance or the entrance of the room.
The air purifier should suck in and not obstruct the airflow, creating a flow of air in the room and efficiently cleaning the air in the room.
When placed diagonally across the air conditioner, the synergy with the airflow of the air conditioner improves the airflow in the room and makes the air purifier more efficient.
It is ideal to operate an air purifier continuously for 24 hours to prevent pollen. There seem to be many cases where an air purifier is used only in the room when there are people. This means when there are no people, there is no airflow in the room, so dust floating in the room tends to accumulate.
Keep the air in your room clean by operating the air purifier even while you are away.
Even if you use it all day, the electricity charge is less than 10 yen per day*.
*Trial calculation condition: Daikin Humidification Streamer Air Purifier MCK 70 R-W, operating in operation mode "Turbo (Electricity cost per 7.0 m3/min/1 hour: 1.97 yen)" for 10 minutes: 0.33 yen (Assumes time to pick up laundry after returning home), operating in operation mode "Standard (Electricity cost per 3.5 m3/min/1 hour: 0.46 yen)" for 7 hours: 3.22 yen (Assumed in the room), operating in operation mode "High (Electricity cost per 4.8 m3/min/1 hour: 0.78 yen)" for 3 hours: 2.34 yen (Assume you are doing housework), operating in operation mode "Shizuka (Electricity cost per 1.0 m3/min/1 hour: 0.22 yen)" for 14 hours: 3.08 yen (Assumes 7 hours of sleep and 7 hours of absence), total electric bill for 1 day: 8.97 yen (Calculated as 1 kWh = 27 yen)
We recommend you to use different air volume according to your lifestyle and the amount of dust.
Dust is likely to be generated during cleaning, so catch it quickly with a large air volume. When you take in your laundry, you can quickly remove pollen and exhaust gas from the outside if you operate at the maximum air volume. Also, since pollen and exhaust gas are attached to the laundry that was dried outside, it is recommended to operate with a large air volume when folding it.
We recommend that you drive at the lowest air volume with the least noise so that you can sleep soundly in a quiet environment.
Normally, I recommend the automatic operation that has a sensor inside the air purifier to check the amount of dust and automatically adjusts the air volume.
To maximize the performance of the air purifier, please take good care of it.
Generally, air purifiers are equipped with multiple filters. The outermost prefilter, which catches large dust, needs to be vacuumed once every two weeks. If the filter is clogged with dirt, the suction and discharge of air is prevented, and it is not possible to clean the air efficiently.
The necessary care differs depending on the model, so follow the instruction manual of your model for proper care.
It is said that the reason for the increase in airborne pollen levels is that Japanese cedar trees were planted all over Japan after the war to secure building materials and control water, and in the late 1960s, these trees began to reach the age of 30 years with high pollen productivity. As the amount of pollen scattered has increased, the number of people who inhale pollen has increased and the number of patients with hay fever has increased. Now half of the households in Japan have hay fever.
Percentage of households with a family member who has hay fever (N = 574 2008 Survey)
Source: Tokyo Bureau of Welfare and Health
FY 1983 - 1987 | FY 1996 | FY 2006 | |
---|---|---|---|
prevalence rate | 10.0% | 19.4% (9.4) | 28.2% (8.8) |
Source: Tokyo Bureau of Welfare and Health
In the season when pollen is scattered, people are especially conscious of "air" in 1 year.
Japanese cedar and cypress pollen, which are dispersed in spring, are often talked about, but in fact, pollen is dispersed throughout the year, not just in spring.
Source: Reorganized based on the nasal allergy diagnosis guideline "Perennial rhinitis and hay fever" 2002 (4th revised edition)
* The total dispersal period was recorded for each region of Japan (Hokkaido, Kanto, Kansai, Kyushu).
* Gramineae ・・・ including giant awagaeri, orchardgrass, and nagahagusa
2.Cedar(30µm)
5.Gramineae (20~40µm)
6.Ambrosia(20µm)
7.Artemisia(25µm)
Source: Sagamihara Hospital website
The amount of dispersed pollen is affected by the weather, so if you understand the weather conditions, you can predict the amount of pollen.
Temperature |
Maximum temperature and pollen dispersalDaily pollen count and maximum temperature (2014 in Toyooka) Source: Hyogo Institute of Health and Human Life Science Research Report |
---|---|
Humidity | The air is dry. (It is easy for pollen to fly far when the sky is dry.) |
Wind | When the wind is strong, pollen does not fall but scatters in the suburbs and urban areas. Wind Speed and Pollen Count (northerly wind of Tokyo)Source: Comprehensive Pollinosis Report (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Health Bureau, 1998) |
Rain | On the day after the rain, two days' worth of male flowers bloom, so the pollen count can be very high. < = > If it rains in the morning, the amount of scattering decreases because cedar male flowers get wet and cannot bloom. |
It is said that the amount of pollen scattered is greatly related to the weather conditions of the previous year.
When the sunshine hours are long and the temperature is high, the flower buds grow well and the amount of pollen dispersed in the next year increases.
Source: Pollen Disease Environmental Conservation Manual 2014 (Ministry of the Environment)
Why is the percentage of people suffering from hay fever high in urban areas with few cedar forests?
Source: Prevalence of Japanese cedar pollinosis Katsuji Udagawa 'Numbers tell us about "Ura" and "Omotte" in modern Japan.' Gakken Shinsho (2009) * Prevalence of pollinosis was from a 2008 survey.
In addition, the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications "Statistics for Japan 2009"
The percentage of people suffering from hay fever is likely to be high in urban areas due to the peculiar situation that there are a lot of exhaust gas in the atmosphere and the ground surface is covered with asphalt.
Let's look at the difference between urban pollen and rural pollen.
Unlike rural air, urban air contains a lot of air pollutants called adjuvants.
When pollen moves from the mountains, it absorbs this air pollutant and is carried to the cities.
Photo by: Nobuyuki Shirasawa, Associate Professor, Yamagata University School of Medicine
There are adjuvant substances in the air that make allergic symptoms worse.
By inhaling pollen and other allelic substances, Substances
that worsen allergic symptoms are called adjuvant substances.
Major adjuvant substances include diesel dust emitted from
automobiles and formaldehyde used in building materials.
Photo: Associate Professor Nobuyuki Shirasawa, Yamagata University School of Medicine
Diesel dust, an adjuvant substance, is said to double the symptoms of hay fever.
"Adjuvant effect" refers to the effect of diesel dust such as exhaust gas and formaldehyde on allergic symptoms.
Announcement: Test conditions on June 9, 2005: Healthy mice were administered antigen (ovalbumin) intraperitoneally every 2 weeks (injection) and the total IgE level in the blood was measured at 8 weeks. (Joint research with Daikin Industries, Wakayama Medical University and National Institute for Environmental Studies)
There are many adjuvant substances around us that exacerbate allergies.s