Usha Müller , 14 March 2024
Healthy air for allergy sufferers
Attention allergy sufferers – pollen is flying
Winter season showed itself in all its facets, from very low to pleasantly warm temperatures. In the mountains, Winter still prevails with fresh temperatures. The nature is in hibernation. In the lowlands, on the other hand, spring is noticeable with milder temperatures and sunshine – nature begins to awaken, the trees and grasses to bloom and the pollen begins to fly around with flowering.
Read on to find out:
- Pollen flies around from spring to autumn
- Causes and symptoms of a pollen allergy
- What can help to relieve hay fever in the home?
- Less pollen thanks to optimal humidity
- Air washer George enables allergy sufferers to breathe freely
Pollen flies around from spring to autumn
As those of us who are plagued by hay fever know only too well: the pollen season is long. The wide variety of allergens fill the air from January to September or even longer. Even in autumn, some pollen is still flying. You can find out which ones in our article on allergies in autumn. Starting with the hazel and the alder, in spring and summer grass pollens float around in the air, followed by mugwort and ragweed in late summer. There is a long list of pollens from trees, grasses and herbs which make life difficult to allergy sufferers.
Causes and symptoms of a pollen allergy
A pollen allergy is often hereditary and is a reaction to one or more types of pollen. The immune system reacts to the proteins in pollen. Contact with pollen causes the release of histamine which leads to the inflammation of the conjunctiva in the eye or the mucous membrane in the nose. If a pollen allergy remains untreated for a long period of time, it can develop into allergic asthma. In most cases, an allergy to pollen presents in the form of symptoms ranging from a runny nose, a painful scratchy feeling in the throat, swollen, itchy and burning eyes and skin irritations to asthma.
What can help to relieve fever in the home
Unfortunately, we are not protected against pollen when we are indoors either. We often bring pollen from outdoors into our homes and offices on our clothing or even on our skin. The pollen can then settle on other textiles and furniture. As allergens are very small, they stick to dust particles and are then also distributed throughout indoor areas.
Besides cleaning your home and office thoroughly on a regular basis, it is worth using an air purifier. This can help to trap particles ranging from coarse to small and consequently reduce the pollution of room air by allergens. As a result, the air quality in your home or office will improve dramatically. You can find more useful tips in our article "10 tips to prevent pollen allergies".
Less pollen thanks to optimal humidity
Optimum room air humidity of between 40 % and 60 % will ensure that the air is less polluted by pollen and other particles. These small particles attach themselves to water droplets in the air which makes them heavy so that they fall to the ground. From there, they are less able to damage the respiratory system than when they were floating around at eye level. A humidifier or air washer can help to create optimum humidity indoors.
Air washer George enables sufferers to breathe freely
Air washer George is 2 appliances in 1: air purifier and air humidifier. On the one hand, he removes particles such as e.g. pollen from plants or dust from the air and on the other hand, he humidifies the air which is necessary when the temperature drops in the winter. Anyone who read or saw the blog post "Does ventilation increase the humidity indoors during the winter?" will know why the air indoors becomes dry in winter.
We arranged for air washer George to be tested by an independent testing centre in order to have his good purifying performance confirmed. Testing involved measuring the removal of very small particles (of 0.3 to 15 μm). Within 30 minutes, George successfully filtered over 66 % of these particles from the air. Pollen measures between 10 and 90 μm so this air washer can remove them from the air without any problems. George efficiently filters the smallest particles from the air in rooms of up to 50 m2 / 123 m3, making him the ideal housemate for allergy sufferers.
Watch the following video to see how George both purifies and humidifies the air at the same time.
You can find out more about pollen allergies and healthy air for allergy sufferers on our information page. There you will find interesting articles on topics such as what to do about pollen in the bedroom or how you can reduce allergy symptoms with 10 measures.
More about healthy air for allergy sufferers
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