Extract
The relationships between allergen exposure, sensitisation and the development of allergic disease have, since their first description, been complicated, often counterintuitive, and rarely straightforward. Ever since Charles Blackley put himself through a private medical education in order to study his own severe “summer catarrh”, allergens and their human targets have been behaving oddly. Blackley [1] suggested a hypothesis (circa 1870s) that his summer catarrh or hay fever might be associated with exposure to seasonal grass pollens (the current belief at the time was that it was caused by increased temperatures in summer). He confirmed his hypothesis in a series of elegant and painstaking experiments, often on himself. At a time when hay fever was distinctly uncommon, he headed to local farming communities around the rapidly developing city of Manchester, to study probable sufferers. To his surprise, the very people exposed relentlessly to grass pollens in their daily working lives rarely reported hay fever symptoms. It might be argued that with this observation he also suggested the earliest stirrings of what would become part of the hygiene hypothesis, namely that people who live on farms get less allergic disease.
Abstract
How do animal furs protect children from asthma and allergy? Is it time to trial furs and other farm type exposures? http://ow.ly/Nce0O
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: None declared.
- Received May 18, 2015.
- Accepted May 20, 2015.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015