A doctor's advice is all very well, but you are inclined to wonder. There's the doctor for example, who, waiting to be called to the surgery, hangs around in a nearby bar having a smoke. He is not unique. Then there is the general health advice which is issued. In Mallorca, they do a lot of this issuing, and some of it, regardless of season, is the same. Such as keeping windows and doors closed. Why would you do this? In summer, to keep the heat out. In spring, to keep pollen out. Or such as not going out between the hours of eleven and three. Why not? Because in summer, it's too hot and in spring the pollen is more likely to affect you.
Don't have rugs or carpets, don't hang washing out, do wear sunglasses. Life, you would think, is intolerable in Mallorca. Everyone should live like hermits in minimalist interiors, stripped of all textile products, with the windows tightly shut, the vacuum-cleaner permanently on. Pollen gets everywhere. The medical people issue their advice to tackle the problems, and no one of course takes a blind bit of notice. Wheezing and sneezing.
Just look at how nice those pine trees on Puerto Pollensa's pine walk are. Not so nice when the pine is in full flower. Think how much the olive industry in Mallorca is valued. Yes, but the olives are the source of pollen, too. A great abundance of it. Less valued and less nice are the pellitory plants, the nettles, the lichwort, the sticky-weed, known also as the asthma weed. These can out-pollen even the pines and olives.
For all the advice and for all the lime-green stuff that flies about, I find it hard to think of people in Mallorca who have displayed overt signs of suffering from pollen allergies. Certainly not in the way people can be afflicted with hay-fever in Britain. And there's a reason why. Despite what the medical people say, a different type of doctor, one who is a scientist at the university, says that conditions in Mallorca and the rest of the Balearics are pretty benign when it comes to pollen allergies.
So benign are these conditions in fact that there is a tourism opportunity. Seriously, there is talk of it. Compared with northern Europe and indeed the mainland of Spain, Mallorca is a haven for the hay-fever sufferer. From March to June, the wheezers and and sneezers of Britain, Germany and elsewhere can flee the pollen of their own countries and breathe more easily in Mallorca. In the Balearics, apparently, only 40,000 people suffer from pollen allergies.
This, though, is nothing like as many as populations of northern Europe who are affected by pollen: one in four people. I'm not sure how many more that equates to, and I'm certainly not going to try and work it out, but five, ten, fiftyfold more? Whatever the number, relatively it is very much higher.
It is also nothing like the over 150,000 people in the Balearics who suffer from allergies as a consequence of the house dust mite, which is the single greatest cause of allergic reactions on the islands. The climate and the dampness of Mallorca have its drawbacks, one of them being that it is perfect for the dust mite, a problem on the island that is tenfold that in the likes of Madrid and a problem that is greater than everything that flies around in the air.
Given that Mallorca is in fact like sucking on a Tunes and breathing more easily, you can understand why few people might pay attention to the window-closing advice. You can also but wonder what the fuss has been about in respect of the withdrawal of funding for the capturing of pollen data and for the provision of this information on the website of the Balearic Government's environment ministry. The funding has been withdrawn because, well, funding is being withdrawn - period.
No, the fact is that wheezing and sneezing in Mallorca is more likely to be something to do with our mate the mite and not the pollen, and when the breezes are light, as they mostly have been lately, the pollen is tossed around far less. So you don't need to close the doors and windows. But when gushing gust winds turn just up the north, then you might have to.
* Something of an annual event now, the pollen thing and the Cocteaus' homage to wheezing and sneezing. Here this time, though, with lyrics (such as they are):
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Pollen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pollen. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Getting Down And Dirty: Rain, pollen and dust
"Red rain is pouring down. Pouring down all over me." Peter Gabriel.
I was once, some years ago, driving along the coast road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa. What can, at times, be a dodgy road because of the winds and the stones tossed around by turbulent waves, became even more dodgy as it was transformed in its own little sea. A "mar petita" of mud. The brown stuff doesn't so much hit the fan but smacks against the windscreen with blinding power.
That was the worst I had experienced. It took an age to clean cars, terraces, gates, walls. Hedges and plants adopted the colour of a burning summer, yet it was only February. The red rain of the Sahara had fallen down; fallen down all over me, you and anyone or anything else either moving or motionless.
It happened again the other night, the following morning being one of hosing down, of car washing or of cars that looked as though they had suddenly succumbed to the rust induced by Mallorca's winter dampness. This latest bout of red rain was a little early; for spring and the arrival of warm air. As the local met office explained, air from north Africa had come before the start of the season which will occur at precisely 00.21 this coming Monday. How, as with the precision of statistics, officialdom and agencies love the precision of time here, and how peculiar it seems in a land where time is treated with general disregard or indifference.
Such precision also tells us that red rain of the type which fell over the night of Monday into Tuesday was the most recent to be added to 222 just such occurrences between 1979 and 2001. They don't seem to have got around to calculating the last ten years' worth. Yet.
For all this precision, however, there appears not to have been a great deal of scientific study of the phenomena which bring the red rain. For our purposes, which meteorologically stretch no further than cursing it, the influences are the coming together of cool and damp east winds and those from Africa together with sand lurking in the atmosphere that needs a damn good cleaning out. The atmosphere got its wash on Monday night, and we ended up anything but clean.
There is apparently another potential bringer of dirty rain - roll clouds that accompany meteotsunamis, i.e. tsunamis created by atmospherics as opposed to seismic movement, the cause of Japan's horror. Known locally as the "rissaga", it seems particularly prone to hitting Ciutadella in Menorca, as it did in June 2006 when 35 boats were sunk. A similar weather event has certainly also hit the port in Alcúdia in the past.
The red, dirty rain is just one way that nature gives us a smack in the gob in a late Mallorcan winter turning to early spring. Another is pollen. Terraces take on a dusty appearance, one, for once, not caused by sand being blown around. On a Dulux chart, I guess you'd put the colour of the pollen at somewhere between a luscious lime and a melon sorbet. Put a white t-shirt out to dry and what you get is something that looks like a Norwich City kit.
And amidst these naturally caused dirt events are those brought on by man. Or by many a workman. The winter's building season is coming to what might be hoped will be its climax and completion in time for the first real punters of spring.
In Puerto Alcúdia, the streets and roads have been covered for weeks with a silvery-grey dust, not dissimilar in colour to coal ash that forms lunar fields thanks to deposits from the power station. The dust has been the result of the work on digging everywhere up in order to install the water-recycling system for the resort's hotels. But not even water from the skies, especially not the dirty rain, washes the dust away. It lingers and is billowed up into dust clouds by every vehicle whose driver hasn't taken on board the government's pleas for petrol saving. Speed on the motorway may have been cut, but not on the main and side roads.
The red rain, the pollen and the dust. They all combine to turn landscapes, terraces and cars into abstracts of russet, greens and greys. And they place demands on water resources, recycled or not. The red rain is pouring down, pouring down all over me, making a goo with the powders, and then sending us all off for working at the car wash.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I was once, some years ago, driving along the coast road between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa. What can, at times, be a dodgy road because of the winds and the stones tossed around by turbulent waves, became even more dodgy as it was transformed in its own little sea. A "mar petita" of mud. The brown stuff doesn't so much hit the fan but smacks against the windscreen with blinding power.
That was the worst I had experienced. It took an age to clean cars, terraces, gates, walls. Hedges and plants adopted the colour of a burning summer, yet it was only February. The red rain of the Sahara had fallen down; fallen down all over me, you and anyone or anything else either moving or motionless.
It happened again the other night, the following morning being one of hosing down, of car washing or of cars that looked as though they had suddenly succumbed to the rust induced by Mallorca's winter dampness. This latest bout of red rain was a little early; for spring and the arrival of warm air. As the local met office explained, air from north Africa had come before the start of the season which will occur at precisely 00.21 this coming Monday. How, as with the precision of statistics, officialdom and agencies love the precision of time here, and how peculiar it seems in a land where time is treated with general disregard or indifference.
Such precision also tells us that red rain of the type which fell over the night of Monday into Tuesday was the most recent to be added to 222 just such occurrences between 1979 and 2001. They don't seem to have got around to calculating the last ten years' worth. Yet.
For all this precision, however, there appears not to have been a great deal of scientific study of the phenomena which bring the red rain. For our purposes, which meteorologically stretch no further than cursing it, the influences are the coming together of cool and damp east winds and those from Africa together with sand lurking in the atmosphere that needs a damn good cleaning out. The atmosphere got its wash on Monday night, and we ended up anything but clean.
There is apparently another potential bringer of dirty rain - roll clouds that accompany meteotsunamis, i.e. tsunamis created by atmospherics as opposed to seismic movement, the cause of Japan's horror. Known locally as the "rissaga", it seems particularly prone to hitting Ciutadella in Menorca, as it did in June 2006 when 35 boats were sunk. A similar weather event has certainly also hit the port in Alcúdia in the past.
The red, dirty rain is just one way that nature gives us a smack in the gob in a late Mallorcan winter turning to early spring. Another is pollen. Terraces take on a dusty appearance, one, for once, not caused by sand being blown around. On a Dulux chart, I guess you'd put the colour of the pollen at somewhere between a luscious lime and a melon sorbet. Put a white t-shirt out to dry and what you get is something that looks like a Norwich City kit.
And amidst these naturally caused dirt events are those brought on by man. Or by many a workman. The winter's building season is coming to what might be hoped will be its climax and completion in time for the first real punters of spring.
In Puerto Alcúdia, the streets and roads have been covered for weeks with a silvery-grey dust, not dissimilar in colour to coal ash that forms lunar fields thanks to deposits from the power station. The dust has been the result of the work on digging everywhere up in order to install the water-recycling system for the resort's hotels. But not even water from the skies, especially not the dirty rain, washes the dust away. It lingers and is billowed up into dust clouds by every vehicle whose driver hasn't taken on board the government's pleas for petrol saving. Speed on the motorway may have been cut, but not on the main and side roads.
The red rain, the pollen and the dust. They all combine to turn landscapes, terraces and cars into abstracts of russet, greens and greys. And they place demands on water resources, recycled or not. The red rain is pouring down, pouring down all over me, making a goo with the powders, and then sending us all off for working at the car wash.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Wheezing And Sneezing: Pollen allergies in Mallorca
Atishoo!
Scratching, nose-running and blowing, eyes reddening; wheezing and sneezing. 'Tis the season to be allergic. If you are suffering from sore eyes, blocked or runny nose, cough or wheeze or itching, then you probably have an allergy. And you would not be alone. According to a report from "The Diario" yesterday, one in three people in the Balearics suffers from an allergy brought about by air-borne pollen. If you're having a few respiratory problems, take some solace in being re-assured that the Balearics fare rather better than the mainland of Spain; it's worse there.
This is indeed the season for pollen, and the season can be quite long in lasting until July. There is some worry that this will be a particularly bad year for pollen allergies, a consequence of the wet winter.
The evidence of pollen is not difficult to see. The yellow dust that covers cars and terraces is a familiar sight in spring. I've always presumed it to be pine pollen, and it may well be, but this is not the only pollen that drifts around in the Mallorcan breezes. The worst culprit is, apparently, the "parietaria", a plant or I suppose weed that includes nettles. Others are olive trees, cypress trees - of various sorts - and grasses of different types. Among the advice to combat the effects of pollen are recommendations to avoid going out between eleven and three, wearing sunglasses and not hanging out washing, as the pollen gets into clothes. This latter bit of advice is sound for another reason. Given the yellowy-green colour of the pollen, get a real strong blast of it and you'll end up looking as if you're playing for Norwich City (sorry, I think I may have used this "joke" before, but I like it anyway). I suppose Brazil might be more acceptable.
While hay fever and even asthma can be the consequence of pollen allergies, the effect of pollen on the skin cannot be underestimated. One such is what one might call "driver's itch". Car window down, arm resting on door, and later some damn annoying itch, followed by scratch, scratch and a scab. I know. I've had it. There is another downside to having the window down. The inside of the car gets smothered in the pollen. The advice being issued doesn't stretch to car windows, only to keeping those in houses closed, but it should do. Not that I'd take any notice. Itch, itch, scratch, scratch. At least I'm not wheezing and sneezing.
QUIZ:
Yesterday - Gorillaz, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w_upzACEVo. Today - "wheezing and sneezing" when they, strange Scottish shoegazers as they were, were at their most terrifyingly weird and wonderful.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Scratching, nose-running and blowing, eyes reddening; wheezing and sneezing. 'Tis the season to be allergic. If you are suffering from sore eyes, blocked or runny nose, cough or wheeze or itching, then you probably have an allergy. And you would not be alone. According to a report from "The Diario" yesterday, one in three people in the Balearics suffers from an allergy brought about by air-borne pollen. If you're having a few respiratory problems, take some solace in being re-assured that the Balearics fare rather better than the mainland of Spain; it's worse there.
This is indeed the season for pollen, and the season can be quite long in lasting until July. There is some worry that this will be a particularly bad year for pollen allergies, a consequence of the wet winter.
The evidence of pollen is not difficult to see. The yellow dust that covers cars and terraces is a familiar sight in spring. I've always presumed it to be pine pollen, and it may well be, but this is not the only pollen that drifts around in the Mallorcan breezes. The worst culprit is, apparently, the "parietaria", a plant or I suppose weed that includes nettles. Others are olive trees, cypress trees - of various sorts - and grasses of different types. Among the advice to combat the effects of pollen are recommendations to avoid going out between eleven and three, wearing sunglasses and not hanging out washing, as the pollen gets into clothes. This latter bit of advice is sound for another reason. Given the yellowy-green colour of the pollen, get a real strong blast of it and you'll end up looking as if you're playing for Norwich City (sorry, I think I may have used this "joke" before, but I like it anyway). I suppose Brazil might be more acceptable.
While hay fever and even asthma can be the consequence of pollen allergies, the effect of pollen on the skin cannot be underestimated. One such is what one might call "driver's itch". Car window down, arm resting on door, and later some damn annoying itch, followed by scratch, scratch and a scab. I know. I've had it. There is another downside to having the window down. The inside of the car gets smothered in the pollen. The advice being issued doesn't stretch to car windows, only to keeping those in houses closed, but it should do. Not that I'd take any notice. Itch, itch, scratch, scratch. At least I'm not wheezing and sneezing.
QUIZ:
Yesterday - Gorillaz, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w_upzACEVo. Today - "wheezing and sneezing" when they, strange Scottish shoegazers as they were, were at their most terrifyingly weird and wonderful.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Blowin' In The Wind
Is it normally this bad? I don't remember it being so. Pollen. All over the damn place. The terrace looks like the tide's been in and deposited a load of sand. It gets inside. Open the car window and the black leather trim is blasted to take on the appearance of an abstract painting, all streaks and bits of yellow and green. Whoever thought that those holes in the leather would look cool didn't take into account the insinuative nature of Mallorcan pollen. Don't they have trees and bushes and stuff in Japan?
Perhaps it's the summer in winter we've been having. At times it has been pretty damn hot, so thanks God there's a storm brewing and some rain will come. Only problem then is that the pollen will turn to glue. Oh and one other thing. Washing. Put the washing out, and you know that white t-shirt. Looks like the whole of the Norwich City kit - shirt and shorts.
But to other matters, and something of a celebration as the blog now starts to spread its wings. Can a blog have wings? Maybe not. Whatever. It's like Cheers spawning Frasier or some such. Blog - the spin-off. My good friends at Majorcan Villas have given their site a make-over and there now is BlogMV, as I've dubbed it. So long as I don't get too bogged down with doing specialist in meat ads, it could be there will now be two regular different blogs, or similar blogs, and maybe exactly the same if I am struggling for time. But then it wouldn't be like a spin-off. So I'll try my best to keep them different. The link to Majorcan Villas, and therefore Blog MV, is in the links menu.
And just one final thing. Today's "Bulletin". Back page. Headline. "Wacky Races". Reference to the Classic Car Rally that I spoke about on 1 March and in which I used the wacky races line. I don't know, am I becoming like "The Bulletin"?
And one final, final thing. I was doing these labels things that go with each entry, and put in Pollen and then Pollensa. How about that? Pollen-saaaahh. Atchoo!
QUIZ
Yesterday - Isaac Hayes. Today's title - oh come on, this is dead simple.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Perhaps it's the summer in winter we've been having. At times it has been pretty damn hot, so thanks God there's a storm brewing and some rain will come. Only problem then is that the pollen will turn to glue. Oh and one other thing. Washing. Put the washing out, and you know that white t-shirt. Looks like the whole of the Norwich City kit - shirt and shorts.
But to other matters, and something of a celebration as the blog now starts to spread its wings. Can a blog have wings? Maybe not. Whatever. It's like Cheers spawning Frasier or some such. Blog - the spin-off. My good friends at Majorcan Villas have given their site a make-over and there now is BlogMV, as I've dubbed it. So long as I don't get too bogged down with doing specialist in meat ads, it could be there will now be two regular different blogs, or similar blogs, and maybe exactly the same if I am struggling for time. But then it wouldn't be like a spin-off. So I'll try my best to keep them different. The link to Majorcan Villas, and therefore Blog MV, is in the links menu.
And just one final thing. Today's "Bulletin". Back page. Headline. "Wacky Races". Reference to the Classic Car Rally that I spoke about on 1 March and in which I used the wacky races line. I don't know, am I becoming like "The Bulletin"?
And one final, final thing. I was doing these labels things that go with each entry, and put in Pollen and then Pollensa. How about that? Pollen-saaaahh. Atchoo!
QUIZ
Yesterday - Isaac Hayes. Today's title - oh come on, this is dead simple.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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