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Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

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Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#61

Post by vikramkr »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #16
Mashimo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might have something to do with it: > When the sugi and hinoki forests were first planted in the 1950s and 60s, they weren't meant to stand forever. At the time, it was assumed they would be gradually cut down and replanted over time, as had been the case before the war. But as Japan's economy boomed in the late 60s and 70s, major cities like Kobe and Tokyo grew rapidly, and it ended up being cheaper to import w…

I don't get the relevance of "major cities grew rapidly". That can only mean that demand for wood spiked. There's no way it can cause local wood to become less competitive with imported wood.

If I had to guess - lumber costs might be dominated by labor costs? If they don't have guest worker programs it might not be cost effective anymore as wages go up

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#62

Post by eesmith »

thrownthatway wrote: post #53
idiomaddict wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to Germany as an adult from a completely separate biome, and I’ve got terrible problems with allergies I never had in my home country

[flagged]

"A biome (/ˈbaɪ.oʊm/ BY-ohm) is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, animal life, and an ecosystem. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biome

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#63

Post by flohofwoe »

alphabeta3r56 wrote: post #18
flohofwoe wrote: post #14

Hmm, most German forests are also vast monoculture 'tree farms' and have been for the last 250 years (also caused by large scale deforestation in the centuries before). In the Ore Mountains we also have those yellow clouds of pollen coming off spruce trees every few years, covering everything with a thin yellow dust layer, yet I'm not aware that the number of people with pollen allergies is exceptionally high (oth, m…

Germany has half the percentage of forest as Japan

On average sure, but there are regions in Germany with both high amount of forest areas and fairly high population density (e.g. Ore Mountain region up to 50% forest area and more than 200 people/km^2).

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#64

Post by freehorse »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #60
efesak wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The spruce and other local conifers (I live by the Bohemian Forest/Bayerischer Wald) have pollen that seems to be low allergenic by design. I know a lot of people who are allergic to birch or weed pollen, but not to spruce.

By design? Who designed the pollen in those trees?

I read it as "breeds selected to be low-allergenic" by the relative orgs that I assume (re)planted them there but I have no real idea about german forests and the processes of planting trees there.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#65

Post by jdshaffer »

hastily3114 wrote: post #3

Interesting. I noticed that many people have hay fever in Japan, but I always just assumed it was genetic or something. I wonder if living there for a long time will make you more sensitive to pollen

Yes. I developed hay fever after living here in Japan for a couple years. Was fine the first few years, though it was amusing to watch "yellow clouds of pollen" being blown from the trees with random gusts of wind. Now it's not so amusing. My car windows are dusted with a new layer of "light yellow" every couple days now (in season).

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#67

Post by markus_zhang »

INTPenis wrote: post #34
flohofwoe wrote: post #14

Hmm, most German forests are also vast monoculture 'tree farms' and have been for the last 250 years (also caused by large scale deforestation in the centuries before). In the Ore Mountains we also have those yellow clouds of pollen coming off spruce trees every few years, covering everything with a thin yellow dust layer, yet I'm not aware that the number of people with pollen allergies is exceptionally high (oth, m…

Pollen allergies have definitely skyrocketed in Sweden. We used to be able to sit in an office and work all year without hearing people sniffle and sneeze. Now it's like an epidemic, at least half the office is affected.

I kinda suspect it was the Covid. I didn’t have allergic reactions until I was infected with Covid. I don’t have proof though.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#68

Post by timschmidt »

Terr_ wrote: post #43
dv_dt wrote: post #24

Hmm, I'm also wondering about studies about overly sanitized environments for children being correlated with higher allergy rates. I guess poking around for a good representative study, it's actually low diversity of microbial exposure, not "cleaning" per-se that is correlated - e.g this is one reason why households with dogs have lower allergy rates. A monoculture of certain tree species also implies less microbial…

I'd like to preemptively draw a line between two different kinds of hypothesis when it comes to hygiene: 1. The immune system is not being exposed enough to wild or even infectious content, and it needs more threats to fight off. 2. ("Old Friends") The immune system is not being exposed enough to commensal or even symbiotic organisms that we co-evolved with, throwing off its calibration and tuning. I instinctively pr…

An excellent distinction to make. Life however often says "Why not both? And 11 more you'd have never thought of. And one that seems impossible just for fun."

If it's possible, and it can force a function up a gradient, life is almost certainly doing it somewhere.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#69

Post by pezezin »

hastily3114 wrote: post #3

Interesting. I noticed that many people have hay fever in Japan, but I always just assumed it was genetic or something. I wonder if living there for a long time will make you more sensitive to pollen

I have been living in Japan for almost 8 years now, and I didn't have any allergy ever until a month ago when all of sudden it hit me like a hammer. Good god was it painful...

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#70

Post by zeafoamrun »

jdshaffer wrote: post #65
hastily3114 wrote: post #3

Interesting. I noticed that many people have hay fever in Japan, but I always just assumed it was genetic or something. I wonder if living there for a long time will make you more sensitive to pollen

Yes. I developed hay fever after living here in Japan for a couple years. Was fine the first few years, though it was amusing to watch "yellow clouds of pollen" being blown from the trees with random gusts of wind. Now it's not so amusing. My car windows are dusted with a new layer of "light yellow" every couple days now (in season).

It's super easy to be allergic to cedar pollen because it is such a fine pollen. I developed a cedar pollen allergy within a couple years of moving from somewhere with no cedar to a heavily forested area with cedar. No other allergies to anything, I don't think I'm particularly prone. I tried doing the allergy shots for it for a while but it didn't seem to do much. What works is staying inside with the house sealed up and air filters running, or just getting the hell out of town for a month+.
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