South on alert for cypress pollen

ALLERGY sufferers are being warned to watch out for heavy presence of cypress pollen in the south of France this week.

The pollen warning map provided by national monitoring body RNSA shows departments with a ‘very high’ level of pollens – especially cypress – include Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse, Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales. The Gard and Hérault are also on a ‘high’ alert.

Place your cursor over a department for more detail of the pollens present there.

At present the risks are low in most of the country away from the Mediterranean, although RNSA says the increasingly sunny weather will be seeing birch trees releasing pollens across a large area of the north and the first pollens are already being picked up in the Paris area.

The body offers a smartphone application (Allertes Pollens) and the chance to sign up for email alerts.