Pollen in the atmosphere of Sydney, Australia, and relationships with meteorological parameters.

Pollen is significant from a human health perspective because it has been known to trigger allergic respiratory disease such as asthma and hay fever. The presence of pollen in the atmosphere has been related to meteorological parameters in past studies, but this has not been done previously in Sydney, Australia. This paper reports the results of a study on Poaceae, Plantaginaceae, Casuarinaceae, and total pollen in Sydney. Pollen concentration data for the period 19 August 1992 to 31 December 1995 was examined with meteorological data for the same period. The daily pollen concentration was compared to the meteorological data for the same day and for up to three days previously. The analysis methods were Spearman's rank correlation and multiple regression. Poaceae, Plantaginaceae, and total pollen appear to be positively correlated with temperature, dew point temperature, and wind speed, and negatively correlated with air pressure. Casuarinaceae pollen is also related to these meteorological parameters, but the sign of the correlations is the opposite. There is potential for the results of this study to be used by public health authorities in the prediction of pollen concentrations in Sydney. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]