AirWatch - Pollen and Air Quality

Why monitor pollens
Pollen Standards for grasses
When to monitor
Monitoring Pollen with AirWatch
Resources

Background Information:

Sex Life of Plants
People and Pollen
Wind Pollination
Identification pictures of pollen grains
Forecasting tomorrow's pollen count

Why monitor pollens

AirWatch is about individuals monitoring their own air quality. For some individuals the amount of pollen in the air they breathe has a direct effect upon their health. Airborne pollen on its own, or in combination with fine particles in the air, can influence the incidence and severity of asthma and hayfever in the community.

The monitoring equipment in the AirWatch kit enables students to sample their air and collect pollen. Using a microscope and a simple technique of ‘pollen counting’ students will be able to compare their results with community standards.

Because grass pollens are the most abundant, the pollen count standards developed by Melbourne University and used across Australia by EPAs, are based only on grass pollens.

AirWatch is concerned with wind pollinating plants, mostly grasses.

When to monitor

Pollen Calendar

Airborne pollen can only be successfully collected when wind-pollinating plants are pollinating, and this is during the ‘Pollen Season’. This season varies from state to state within Australia. A useful guide indicating the pollinating plants at any time of the year is a Pollen Calendar. The Pollen Calendar shows each state and territory of Australia, month by month, and the plant species which could be contributing to the airborne pollen. The plant types in a pollen calendar are grouped into Trees, Grasses or Weeds. The student when observing a pollen grain under the microscope can use the Pollen Calendar, their knowledge of plants in their region, and the Pollen Identification Photographic Guide to identify the pollen grain. They should be able to identify it as a Tree, Grass or Weed. Closer investigation of its structure and size may also identify the Family, Genus and Common name of the plant.

Monitoring Pollen with AirWatch

Measuring grass pollen levels using the AirWatch monitoring equipment involves the following 5 steps:

• Using an open-faced filter holder, sample the outside air for a period of time during the pollen season. Record the volume of air sampled using the flow meter. On the filter paper you should collect airborne pollen.
• Cut and stain a section of filter paper and place under a microscope. The stain highlights all pollen grains pink on the filter paper.
• Count the pollen grains you see, and record the surface area over which you counted them.
• Calculate the total grass pollen grains on the entire filter paper, and knowing the volume of air sampled, calculate the grass pollen per cubic metre of air.
• The pollen count (grasses) / cubic metre of air can be compared with the accepted standards.

The detailed method for collecting pollen, identifying pollen, and counting pollen is described on the next pages:

• Collecting pollen
  
• Pollen identification
  
• Pollen counting
  

Return to AirWatch index

Contact: peter.manins@csiro.au

Modified: 16 May 2002