Automatic pollen monitoring

Pollen are among the most relevant al- lergens in Germany, in addition to allergens from house dust mite, cat, and dog. There is no legal limit for pollen flight, as pollen flight is predominantly not caused by anthropogen- ic activity. Thus, monitoring of pollen is also legally not part of the tasks of local authori- ties that are responsible for the monitoring of anthropogenic air pollution. The German weather service (DWD) will, according to di- rective 92 of the health minister conference (2019), implement a Germany -wide pollen monitoring as soon as suitable instrumenta- tion is available. Pollen can be easily iden- tified visually. Because IT -assisted image recognition has been making rapid progress, it was only a matter of time until comput- ers were able to perform pollen monitoring. Although the systems initially worked exclu- sively with image recognition, other inven- tions soon followed. Pollen are biological particles and contain tryptophane, ribofla- vin, NAD(P)H, and other fluorochromes. Commercial pollen monitoring instruments are currently available that are based on im- age recognition, including holography, but also on (multiple) fluorescence monitoring. The ability to automatically monitor pollen flight is scientifically established, and is now gradually being put into practice. Germany is the world leader here, but other countries are catching up. For Germany, visiting the web site www.pollenscience.eu makes clear what is currently being developed. Which system will be used most is unclear, but in Europe several parallel monitoring systems are to be expected. It would be favorable if in Ger- many the same system would be used nation- wide, because this enables intercomparing and synergistic method developments. For patients and physicians it is not important who measures what, as long as pollen data are online, user-friendly, free of charge, and relevant for their location. In Bavaria and a few other locations, this is already a reality (www.epin.bayern.de) as the state of Bavaria implemented and financially supports such a system on a long-term basis. It is to be ex- pected that with the support of allergologists the same is possible in other states in Ger- many.