ABSTRACT
For pollen information and forecasting purposes, the total pollen count is determined, and the most important allergenic pollen grains are analyzed at least to the genus level. Allergenic pollen grains have been shown to be so important that in tens of countries a national information service has been established to provide information about the pollen content of the air. In future, the people should have an extensive library of pollen grain characteristics needed for automated image analysis, and this should enable several more stations to operate and provide more local data on concentrations of allergenic pollen grains. In the temperate and boreal zones of the world, pollen allergies play an important role in human health. Recently, it has been shown that intact pollen grains are not the only sources of pollen allergens, but are found also in sub-micron fragments, and these may be especially important as allergy triggers.
