Abstract
The studying of spatial and temporal distribution of pollen is essential, but rarely tackled in the region including Kuwait. Pollen grains and aeolian dust in the state of Kuwait were seasonally monitored from August 2009 to August 2011 to identify and correlate spatially and temporally pollen data with human health asthma and allergy data. The year 2010–2011 yielded a high in deposited dust and pollen compared to 2009–2010 by 33.2 and 9.9%, respectively. The spring (April–May) and the autumn (October–November) seasons marked the most top pollen distribution for Chenopodiaceae, Gramineae (Poaceae), Cyperaceae, Fabaceae, and Plantaginaceae. The pollen graphs for summer (July–August) and winter (January–February) seasons showed low pollen distribution due to the severe drought, dust storms, winter wind and rainfall. There are no correlations found between pollen deposition and the number of asthma patients. The annual dust deposited rate in Kuwait during 2010/2011 was 373 t km−2 which represented a 33.2% increase compared with 2009/2010. The study has concluded that pollen of Malvaceae, Compositae and Chenopodiaceae is the most common triggers of allergy in Kuwait. Additionally, a positive correlation between the number of allergy patients and deposited dust was observed during March 2010 and 2011.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation and gratitude to Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Science (KFAS) for funding the research dust project-EC063C Grant Number: 2008-1401-01 and approving the publication of the manuscript. Appreciation to Kuwait Health Ministry and Kuwait Meteorological Center for continues support with health and meteorological data. Thanks also extended to editing department in KISR for the manuscript prove reading.
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Al-Dousari, A.M., Ibrahim, M.I., Al-Dousari, N. et al. Pollen in aeolian dust with relation to allergy and asthma in Kuwait. Aerobiologia 34, 325–336 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-018-9516-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-018-9516-8