Abstract: Objective To observe the species, amount changes of airborne pollen over the last 30 years in Beijing City. To find the meteorological factors affecting the amount of airborne pollen. To investigate the relationship between pollen amount and the incidence of pollinosis. Methods Daily airborne pollen monitoring was performed by gravitational method in Beijing from 2010 to 2013, and compared to the result during 1983 to 1986. Correlational analyses were conducted on the pollen amount and its related meteorological factors data (temperature, humidity, wind speed, sunshine duration, precipitation) in 1983~1986 and 2010~2013. We also analyzed the correlation between the daily mean pollen amount and the incidence of pollinosis in 2013. Results Compared with the 1980's, there was a wider range and higher amount of airborne pollens in Beijing now. The cupressaceae pollen has displaced artemisia pollen as the most common pollen type in this city, however the ginkgo tree pollen was the fastest growing pollen type. Throughout the year, there were two pollen amount peaks in Beijing City: from mid Mar to late Apr, from late Jul to late Sep. The pollen amount was positively associated with the temperature and the sunshine duration. The count of artemisia pollen, humulus pollen were negatively associated with the wind speed. The incidence of pollinosis was significantly and positively correlated with the the pollen amount in the same phases. Conclusion Following the time moving on and the urban development, the types and amounts of allergy-related pollen in Beijing have changed much, and led to a corresponding change to the allergen spectrum of allergy sufferers.

Key words: pollen count, airborne pollen, pollinosis, meteorological factors