As autumn enters, allergy symptoms begin to accompany many people’s daily lives. Nose is stuffy, sneezing comes one after another, and eyes are red and itchy. Even if they take a lot of preventive measures, many people still can't avoid this problem. Artemisia is considered to be one of the "behind-the-scenes driving forces" causing these troubles.
Inner Mongolia Artemisia includes Artemisia plants that are widely distributed throughout Inner Mongolia, such as Artemisia annua, Artemisia annua, and Artemisia annua, etc. They are native species of grassland ecology, and their pollen is the main airborne allergen in summer and autumn. Every year from late August to early September is the intensive dispersion period of wormwood pollen, which is also the period of high incidence of seasonal allergic rhinitis, asthma and other diseases in the north.
This year, many places in Inner Mongolia have coordinated the "Artemisia Control Campaign" to shift the management of wormwood from pure physical removal to a systematic prevention and control model of "source control + monitoring and early warning + ecological restoration". With the recent cooling and precipitation, the pollen concentration in Inner Mongolia has entered a phased decline channel. Does this mean that the "allergy alert" has been lifted? The causes of allergies are complex and diverse, so how can we scientifically understand and standardize their prevention and treatment?
In an idle suburban plot of land in Qingfu Town, Qingshan District, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, a special remediation operation targeting Artemisia plants is being carried out continuously. Li Minghan, deputy mayor of Qingfu Town, said that the site uses a combination of mechanical operations and manual uprooting to bundle and collect the uprooted wormwood on the spot to prevent pollen from flying in the wind and causing secondary pollution.
Cai Yonghui, a member of the Party Leadership Group of Baotou Urban Management Bureau and Director of the Municipal Landscaping and Greening Development Center, said that this year Baotou City will include wormwood management in the three-year special management plan from 2026 to 2028, coordinating 93 municipal units to implement fragmented, integrated, closed-loop management of five large areas in the main city, and guiding each district to concentrate on key areas such as schools, hospitals, and residential areas. Starting from August, regular inspections will be carried out to make up for the cleanup, and grid inspections will be carried out on a piecemeal basis. We will actively explore the application of technical means such as drone flight control, liquefied agent spraying and ecological substitution of native plants, and promote the transformation of Artemisia plant management from "single removal" to "long-term ecological management and control".
Up to now, Baotou City has completed wormwood treatment area of more than 17.11 million square meters, and the stock of wormwood in the main urban area has achieved a historic drop.
In Hohhot City, wormwood control work is also actively promoted. In March this year, Hohhot City launched an area-wide investigation, registering and establishing accounts of wormwood spots in public green spaces one by one, adopting a "cleaning + root removal + growth suppression" model to simultaneously replant plants that adapt to the local climate, soil and ecological environment, and use ecological replacement to inhibit the regeneration of wormwood. Monitoring data from the meteorological department show that the pollen concentration in Hohhot this year has dropped by 54% compared with the same period last year. Han Songyuan, a patient with allergic rhinitis, clearly feels that his symptoms have improved a lot this year.
Cai Huijiao, chief physician of the Allergy (Allergy) Department of Hohhot No. 1 Hospital, said that the drop in pollen concentration this year has relieved the symptoms of most local patients.
Rhinitis patients can be said to avoid mugwort. But are allergies really just the fault of mugwort? Cai Huijiao pointed out that in fact, the main source of allergenic pollen in Inner Mongolia in summer and autumn is herbal wind-borne pollen. In addition to Artemisia, pollen from herbaceous plants such as Poaceae, Chenopodiaceae, and Amaranthaceae are also common allergens.
Cai Huijiao said that the occurrence of allergic diseases is not caused by a single factor, but by a variety of factors, including environmental factors, climate warming, air pollution, too clean sanitary conditions, lifestyle and eating habits, work stress, etc., which have led to an increasing number of people suffering from allergic diseases.
The meteorological department has judged that the current pollen season has ended in most parts of central and eastern Inner Mongolia. Taking into account meteorological conditions such as plant phenology, precipitation, low temperature cooling, and strong wind disturbances, the pollen season in the western region is expected to end from September 10 to 15, and the symptoms of many allergic patients have also begun to alleviate. Cai Huijiao emphasized that although the overall pollen count is declining, it does not mean that the risk of allergy has been completely eliminated. Some patients mistakenly believe that the "alarm is over" when they see a drop in pollen concentration, and symptoms may recur if they stop taking medication on their own.
Experts remind that as the pollen season comes to an end, people with allergies can gradually resume normal outdoor activities, but they still need to continue to pay attention to changes in local pollen concentrations. If you have allergic symptoms, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible to identify the allergen.
Producer丨Zhang Chengxia
Reporters丨Zhang Yang Wang Dan Liang Hua
