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

bbc.com

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

#141

Post by ilivethere »

saltybytes wrote: post #107

I was surprised to not find anything about possible cures or treatments in the article. I had bad allergies myself in my teenage years - unable to sleep for weeks - I finally sought help. The western medicine offers protein shots (similar treatment as to food allergies) but I heard good things about acupuncture. First, I was very skeptical about how needles could "help" with allergies. But about 2 months into the tre…

> Medicine is another prong to the attack, with the development of new treatments to better ease the symptoms of pollen exposure. One Japanese trial, for example, showed a long-acting under-the-tongue immunotherapy tablet was were still helping alleviate symptoms two years after treatment. Other scientists have even been experimenting with genetically modified rice designed to alleviate allergy symptoms.

There is. Sorta

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

#142

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

rouvax wrote: post #116

> A 1950s project is to blame Half-way through the article: "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 c…

I don't understand what you're saying, isn't it exact opposite - too early?

by the time the 10-20 year timeline finished, situation changed enough for the plan to not be followed

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

#143

Post by IAmBroom »

simiones wrote: post #100
niemandhier wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool, I did not know that this is so disputed a quasi factoid. Thanks for cleaning my brain! Germany has “Baumkataster” which are databases for public trees in cities, they save all kind of tree metadata but gender is missing … https://hub.arcgis.com/search?tags=baumkataster

I do think you mean sex, not gender - trees don't really have a gender or gender expression. Either way, it would be rather irrelevant, as most trees planted in cities have both male and female flowers (oak, birch, most conifers), or even hermaphroditic flowers (citrus).

Great, now I have to hate trees for being gender-fluid, too?

I just spent $500 on gay conversion therapy for my dog! /s

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

#145

Post by cryzinger »

Tade0 wrote: post #71
Terr_ wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Regarding the second point: ...or parasitic. There's a hypothesis that says the incidence of allergies correlates inversely with the incidence of certain common parasites, like the tapeworm or the pinworm. Additionally, nowadays pregnant women are advised to avoid getting infected with toxoplasmosis due to the birth defects it causes, but it wasn't until the 70s when the last route of transmission was found and expla…

IgE antibodies, which play a huge role in allergic responses, are "supposed" to target parasites and other non-germ invaders. There are treatments that directly deactivate these antibodies... or you can give yourself a parasite on purpose to give those IgE antibodies something constructive to do: https://radiolab.org/podcast/91951-an-update-on-hookworms

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

#146

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

MyHonestOpinon wrote: post #124
niemandhier wrote: post #54

“Arboreal sexism” is a similar phenomenon: We prefer male trees in cities since they do not produce fruit that drop on the streets. The result is a much higher pollen load.

TIL. Trees have (biological) sex. This just blew my head. I must have been too sleepy when we saw that in high school.

> Trees have (biological) sex.

Some species, in some ways. It's varied and complicated

See: Monoecious, dioecious & hermaphroditic plants

https://plantura.garden/uk/green-living/knowledge/monoecious...

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

#147

Post by mr_toad »

flakiness wrote: post #104
goda90 wrote: post #92

>Every year, an area is selectively clear-cut, removing sugi, hinoki but also other invasive species like bamboo. Broadleaf trees are left, and with more sun coming through to the ground, they grow back, along with other new seedlings either planted by staff or brought by birds or animals. In other parts of the world, some plantation -> forest projects don't remove trees but instead pull them over and leave them as l…

Japanese sugi forests are too dense. I don't think they have the space to lay these logs down.

Log slides are potentially lethal in steep areas too. Whole buildings can get demolished if the logs roll down the slope.

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

#148

Post by indoordin0saur »

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…

Some trees pollen causes allergies, other tree pollen does not. Peanuts frequently produce allergic reactions, macadamia nuts rarely do.

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

#149

Post by indoordin0saur »

freehorse wrote: post #64
sidewndr46 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No. Just some trees that produce pollen aren't particularly allergenic.

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

#150

Post by pugworthy »

rouvax wrote: post #116

> A 1950s project is to blame Half-way through the article: "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 c…

The US states of Oregon and Washington were major exporters of raw logs to Japan as well.

The 1962 Columbus Day Storm [1] fell 11.2 billion board feet of timber, which flooded the market and initiated heavy overseas demand. Exports peaked in the 80's. But when the export levels fell and old growth timber became more scarce, local economies of exporting regions took a big hit. The port of Coos Bay for example had a big downturn with lumber being the primary cargo of ships. Coos Bay is the only deep-water coastal harbor in Oregon and the largest between San Francisco and the Puget Sound.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day_storm_of_1962

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