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Atmospheric CO2 and Allergies: Are They Related?
Reference
Weber, R.W.  2002.  Mother Nature strikes back: global warming, homeostasis, and implications for allergy.  Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 88: 251-252.

What was done
In a "guest editorial" in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, Dr. Richard W. Weber of the Department of Medicine of the Jewish Medical and Research Center of Denver, Colorado, USA, muses about the study of Wayne et al. (2002), which was published in the same issue of the Annals and reported a 61% increase in short ragweed pollen production in response to an experimental doubling of the air's CO2 concentration, which finding, in the words of Wayne et al., suggests that "the incidence of hay fever and related respiratory diseases may increase in the future."

What was learned
In reference to the study of Wayne et al. and its speculative inferences, Weber begins by saying "one can always wonder whether such manipulations have any relationship to present reality, or indeed, conditions that one can expect in the near future," as he moves methodically to the conclusion that "it would be premature to assume that increased pollen grain numbers necessarily leads to an increased aeroallergen exposure."

Elucidating some of the reasons for his assessment of the issue, Weber notes that "allergenic activity of short ragweed will very from year to year, even from the same source and supplier (Maasch et al., 1987)."  He also reports that Lee et al. (1979) "found varying potency in plants at the same site from year to year, which they attributed to seasonal climatic differences, primarily of rainfall."  Therefore, he concludes, "a constant relationship between pollen mass and allergenic protein content is not a given" and will remain speculative until it is determined whether "the increased pollen grains seen with the increased ambient CO2 levels maintain the same ratio of allergenic proteins."

What it means
Does the experimentally-demonstrated CO2-induced increase in ragweed pollen production imply an increase in ragweed pollen-induced allergies in a high-CO2 world of the future?  The answer to this question still eludes us.

References
Maasch, H.J., Hauck, P.R., Oliver, J.D. et al.  1987.  Allergenic activity of short ragweed pollen (Ambrosia elatior) from different years and/or suppliers: criteria for the selection of an in-house allergen reference preparation.  Annals of Allergy 58: 429-434.

Wayne, P., Foster, S., Connolly, J., Bazzaz, F. and Epstein, P.  2002.  Production of allergenic pollen by ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) is increased in CO2-enriched atmospheres.  Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology 88: 279-282.


Reviewed 14 April 2004