Climate change making allergy season worse each year, new report says

BOSTON – If it seems like allergy season is getting worse each year it is and a new report blames climate change.

According to a new report by Climate Central, plants are leafing and blooming earlier, the growing season is lasting longer, and the length of time we go without a freeze has lengthened by more than two weeks since 1970. 

So if you have seasonal allergies, you're suffering earlier and longer on average each year. 

And it doesn't matter which season tends to get you - spring and its towering trees, summer and its growing grasses, or autumn and its wily weeds - all seasonal allergies are changing for the worse. 

So don't forget to start your allergy medications 2-3 weeks before you tend to get symptoms so you don't get caught off guard. 

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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