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Local climate changes can impact on a number of factors, including air pollution, that have been shown
to influence both the development and attacks of allergic respiratory diseases, and thus, they represent an
important consideration for the allergist. Atmospheric pollution caused by the pollen abundantly found in
air are responsible for a number of hypersensitive allergic reactions like bronchial asthma, conjunctivitis,
rhinitis, dermatitis etc. among the people living around the world. The basic concept of aero-palynology
revolves round the monitoring of prevalence of the pollen in the atmosphere in relation to meteorology.
Keeping in mind this concept a detailed study was conducted in the highly affected areas of Kashmir
valley to know the allergic disorders caused by the airborne pollen. Hence the present study was taken to
monitor the pollen grains daily in the atmosphere of North Kashmir which is witnessing an increase in
allergy related disorders. These aeroallergens are present in the atmosphere mostly during spring and
autumn seasons. Air monitoring of the area was carried out continuously for all the four seasons in the
study sites and the data compiled revealed that there are many pollen types in the atmosphere of the area
out of which some are already known to cause allergy. Keeping in view the prevalence of unknown
allergic pollen, an apprehension was concealed that there may be some allergic disorders among the
population of the area and this assumption was confirmed from the data collected from government
hospitals working in the area where number of patients attended have been diagnosed with various
hypersensitive reactions. The blood samples were collected from the patients in order to evaluate the
concentration of total IgE and specific IgE levels in such patients. Two bio allergens were tested against
specific IgE by sandwitch ELISA in selected patients aged between 14 – 52 years including both sexes. All
the samples showed presence of high levels of IgE and specific IgE against these two bioallergens showed
moderate to high specific IgE levels. The detailed information on indigenous pollen will surely be very
useful in diagnosis and management of allergic patients and may immensely help the physicians of the
area in treating the patients suffering with various hypersensitive allergic disorders.
Keywords: Hypersensitivity, Rhinitis, Allergens, Respiratory , Asthma, Climate, Pollen, IgE.