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Children's Mercy Hospital tests pollen levels daily

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Posted at 8:32 AM, Sep 20, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-20 09:33:40-04

On the roof of Children’s Mercy Hospital researchers collect data to find out how bad your allergies will be each day.

There they have a collector that records pollen levels on slides throughout the day.

Director of the Allergy Immunology Research Lab Charles Barnes records each slide and can see when certain allergies might peak.

“It is a snapshot of the day,” he said. “When we’ve got traffic in the early morning it stirs up particles. We can see those dark stains on the slide. When traffic lets down we see the slide get a little lighter.”

The research lab collects this data daily and sends it into the American Academy for Allergy and Immunology. They have around 90 allergen collection stations across the country.

Every day the academy compiles that information and releases what the average pollen levels are.

You can sign up to receive daily allergen updates on their website.