A new research initiated by the scientists from the University of East Anglia and other international team of researchers will study the bearing of global warming on allergic related diseases.
The first of its type of study launched in Vienna will concentrate on the spread of Ambrosia Artemisiifolia, a native plant of North America also called as common ragweed, whose allergenic pollens are known to cause allergy related problems such as eczema, asthma and hayfever. The plant has also spread to other countries in Europe and Japan, where it is encroaching over the other normal crops grown areas thus cutting down the farm yield.
The medical facilities in the Europe spend over € 25 billion every year to manage the allergies caused by pollen and allergies related to respiratory problems, which continue to increase. In locations that are worst affected by such problems, it is found that one out of five children experience ragweed pollen related allergy. Though the weed is not found in the UK, it has reached an alarming level in most of the other parts of Europe.
The three year project funded by the European Commission will include environmental researchers from UEA and their fellow researchers from countries such as Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Germany, France and Austria. Also included in the team are climate scientists, physicists, dermatologists, allergists, immunologists and biologists. The project will investigate how the increase in temperatures aggravate the health related problems induced by ragweed by increasing the quantity of pollen produced by the plant, by stretching its pollen production season and by extending its geographical distribution area. The finding of the researchers will assist in forming a policy to manage the growing level of health related difficulties induced by the worldwide environmental change.
The research project known as ‘Atopic diseases in changing climate, land use and air quality’ is joined by scientists from the UK located UEA and Rothamsted Research and other SMEs and research institutions from Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and Austria and organized by the Medical University of Vienna. The project will focus on the period from 2010 to 2030 to research on inter-decadal climate variability and for the periods from 2050 to 2070 to work on the greenhouse gas emissions induced by humans.
Source: http://www.uea.ac.uk/