In message , Michael
Bell writes
I keep log of my health and looking back through it I only realised
last year that I get a massive attack of sneezing and runny nose and
feeling generally unwell each year about the 3rd weekend of May. My
doctor recognised this as hay fever and prescribed Cetirizine which
cured it. (Dose this prove the diagnosis?)

Yesterday evening I got the first attack of what felt like the same,
but it has gone this morning. What plants and their pollen are the
possible causes?

Michael Bell

PS. I live in Newcastle on tyne, and this hay fever continues to my
yearly visit to Swaledale.


The third weekend of May might be about right for the onset of grass
pollen hay fever season. The season has been getting earlier over the
years, but I'm now hit at the end of May rather than the beginning of
June.

Grass is already flowering here, but perhaps not yet in Tyneside and
Swaledale.

But spring hay fever is usually caused by tree pollen, rather than grass
pollen. Oak and beech would seem to be plausible candidates for this
time of year.

Seeking confirmation in Google finds an article in the Grauniad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...thandwellbeing
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley