Gennaro D'Amato

TL;DR: Even though pollen production and dispersal from year to year depend on the patterns of preseason weather and on the conditions prevailing at the time of anthesis, it is usually possible to forecast the chances of encountering high atmospheric allergenic pollen concentrations in different areas.

TL;DR: An enhanced immunoglobulin E-mediated response to aeroallergens and enhanced airway inflammation favoured by air pollution could account for the increasing prevalence of allergic respiratory diseases in urban areas.

TL;DR: The most important allergenic pollen in the Naples area is Parietaria, with very long-lasting periods of pollination, quite different from data of the pollinosis in northern Italy and in the northern Mediterranean area, as well as the southern coast of France, where allergic sensitization to Poaceae is the most important.

TL;DR: There is evidence that under wet conditions or during thunderstorms, pollen grains may, after rupture by osmotic shock, release into the atmosphere part of their content, including respirable, allergen‐carrying cytoplasmic starch granules or other paucimicronic components that can reach lower airways inducing asthma reactions in pollinosis patients.

TL;DR: Air pollutants may promote airway sensitization by modulating the allergenicity of airborne allergens, and airway mucosal damage and impaired mucociliary clearance induced by air pollution may facilitate the access of inhaled allergens to the cells of the immune system.