A PROFESSOR at University College Worcester is spearheading the World Health Day for Europe.

The event which was taking place throughout Europe today, was highlighting "Climate change and increasing allergies in Europe".

Professor Jean Emberlin, the director of the National Pollen Research Centre at UCW is one of the leading figures to highlight the link between rising temperatures and increasing cases of hay fever.

She was part of the World Health Organisation team that met in Rome in January to put together a paper highlighting that climate change is having a direct and major impact on allergies across Europe.

The pollen season is starting earlier and going on longer.

"People simply don't realise that climate change has such a wide-ranging effect," said Professor Emberlin.

"Here at the National Pollen Research Unit at UCW we collate pollen information from around the UK. Records from our sites and others in Europe show a distinct trend for the start of the 'hay fever' season to become earlier by about five days per decade over the last 30 years.

"The damage we do to our environment will continue to see this season extending and causing discomfort for many more people as time goes by. It's just one of the reasons we need to address this problem and support the Government's targets for the reduction in emissions into the atmosphere, 100 per cent."