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Abstract: The information provided by pollen counts cannot be ignored by allergists and allergic individuals, but the divergence sometimes observed with clinical observations has led the réseau national de la surveillance aérobiologique (RNSA) to initiate the monitoring network of allergens by immunosampling (Monalisa) project. Moreover, some recent papers has shown the influence of pollution in the region and even of the year on the content in pollen allergens, particularly that of birch pollen. Thus, the goal of the Monalisa project was to set up a measuring system based on an immunological method that would result in validation of this new way of measuring airborne pollen counts. This European Life Environment project includes nine partners: Bertin Technologies (France), RNSA (France), NPARU (England), UCO (Spain), UTU (Finland), UAM (Poland), UEVORA (Portugal), AIA (Italy), and Meteoswiss (Switzerland). The results obtained during the 2006 season and then in the 2007 campaign, after modifications made in the sampler, were not very good. The principal results concern the measurement of birch and olive allergens, captured essentially in the prepollination period and sometimes in the postpollination period. Detection of these allergens may be due either to their presence on submicroscopic particles emitted independently of pollination, these allergens cross-reacting with birch and olive allergens. The difficulties encountered in this study lead us to say that pollen counts, phenological observations and clinical data are still the best way to assess the effects of airborne pollen. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to study the relation between climate change and the earliness of Birch pollination, a tree that produces allergenic pollen, which is of particular importance in north-western Europe. The study allowed us to make projections for the next few years in order to evaluate the evolution of Birch pollination starting date according to spring temperatures. It has been done in ten European locations, Kevo and Turku (Finland), London (United Kingdom), Paris and Lyon (France), Brussels (Belgium), Zürich (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria), Poznan and Cracow (Poland). The study period ranged from six to twenty-eight years depending on the city. Pollens were recorded daily thanks to volumetric Hirst traps, and the data were compared to monthly temperatures from January to May using correlations and multiple regressions. Except in Kevo where the trend is towards colder springs and a later pollination, in the other cities the results showed a spring warming associated with an earlier starting date of pollination: this trend is very well marked in Turku, Zürich, London, Vienna and Brussels, less evident in France while there is no trend in Poland. The results of this work should lead to an updating of the pollen calendars and the pollen forecast models, in the cities where there is a pronounced trend. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]