6 Ways to Allergy-Proof Your Home Before Pollen Season, According to Allergists


Spring has sprung, which means allergy season has begun. According to the Allergy and Asthma Network, May is the worst month for allergy sufferers in most regions of the US due to elevated pollen counts.

“Allergies to airborne allergens such as pollen can cause symptoms including sneezing, a runny nose, nasal congestion, an itchiness in the nose and throat and red, watery eyes,” explains Dr. Stephanie Kayode, a consultant allergist at Allergy Care London, describing signs of hay fever or allergic rhinitis. “These symptoms occur because pollen allergens provoke inflammation and swelling within the nose, eyes and throat when inhaled.”

When pollen enters our homes, it can cause allergy symptoms even when you’re inside and away from the plants that release pollen, such as trees and grasses. I reached out to allergists to learn how we can allergy-proof our homes and ward off allergies before pollen levels peak.

1. Bring out your air purifier

If your air purifier has been sitting in the back of your closet collecting dust (yikes, another allergen), now is the perfect time to wipe it down and bring it out. 

“Indoor air purifiers, particularly those with high-efficiency particulate air filters, are effective at removing pollens and air pollutants from the air we breathe in our homes, thus improving allergy symptoms,” says Kayode. Air purifiers with higher airflow rates tend to be more effective for this purpose because they filter more air. 

HEPA filters are designed to capture airborne particles, such as pollen, dust, mold and even bacteria and some viruses, as we discovered when the CNET Labs team tested 12 air purifier models to find the best model for preventing illness

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Capturing air pollutants other than pollen can help reduce allergies, as Kayode explains, because these pollutants can damage our airways and even alter pollen to make it more allergenic. This means that similar or lower pollen levels can cause more severe allergic reactions.

“Using a filter that’s an appropriate size for your space is important, and some people place them by entryways for maximum effectiveness,” adds Meagan W. Shepherd, founder of The Allergy Aesthetic and owner of Shepherd Allergy.

Placing an air purifier in a high-traffic area, such as a bedroom or living room, can be especially beneficial. However, you’ll want to ensure you replace your filters when needed, as dirty or clogged filters can actually become sources of pollutants and allergens

The top of a white air purifier on a wood floor.

Now is the time to put your air purifier in a high-traffic area of your home.

FanPro/Getty Images

2. Schedule an HVAC tune-up

HEPA filters aren’t just recommended for air purifiers. Your HVAC systems should use them, too, and they should be changed every three months or as needed. You can check your manufacturer’s instructions for this info.

“Make sure to schedule a tune-up before spring starts, and clear debris from around the outer unit,” Shepherd states. “Make sure the condensate drain lines [which remove excess moisture] aren’t clogged.” 

If applicable, set indoor humidity to 40%-50%. You can also do this if you have a humidifier

3. Monitor pollen forecasts

You can keep track of pollen forecasts with apps including Allergy Plus, My Pollen Forecast and Zyrtec AllergyCast. Kayode recommends doing this and limiting outdoor activities when the pollen count is high. This typically happens in the summer and early morning, when warm air makes pollen rise. 

On cooler, rainy days, pollen counts are usually lower because rain washes pollen out of the air. 

An IQAir pollen forecast screenshot showing tree, grass and weed allergens.

What IQAir’s pollen forecast looks like for Los Angeles.

IQAir/Screenshot by CNET

4. Prevent the outside from getting inside

While it’s impossible to avoid pollen completely, there are certain steps you can take to lessen your indoor exposure. For one, Shepherd advises keeping windows and doors closed. If you keep track of the pollen forecast, ensure you do so on high-pollen days. 

“Change clothes after coming indoors, and keep your hair tied back or wear a hat when outdoors,” Shepherd says. Kayode adds that you can also wear sunglasses to reduce pollen exposure to your eyes. 

If you hang laundry outside to dry, you should shake it out before bringing it inside. 

Depending on how bad your allergies are, you may even want to arrange for someone else to mow your lawn or opt for a robot lawn mower to avoid pollen exposure.

Even when you get into your car, you can exercise precautions. “When getting into a hot car, turn on the recirculation system with the AC so cabin air is reused without drawing more pollen into the car,” says Shepherd. You can also keep your car’s windows closed to ward off pollen, Kayode adds.

5. Be extra cautious after thunderstorms

While rain washes pollen out of the air, a particularly powerful thunderstorm combined with a high temperature can have unwanted aftereffects, worsening hay fever. 

“Thunderstorms can stir up pollen from the ground and cause bursts of pollen fragments in the air, which are highly allergenic,” explains Kayode. “During hot days, pollen builds up and is released into the air during storms, increasing the risk of severe hay fever and asthma symptoms.”

A person and baby looking out a closed door during a thunderstorm.

Keep your windows and doors shut on high-pollen days and during thunderstorms.

J_art/Getty Images

6. Keep your medicine cabinet stocked

If you notice allergy symptoms or want to prevent them, you can use a saline nasal rinse to clear inhaled pollen from your nasal passages. My doctor recommended I use the Arm and Hammer Simply Saline Nasal Care Daily Mist for this reason. 

If that’s not enough and your symptoms are interfering with your daily life, Kayode advises you to consult your doctor to discuss starting allergy medications, such as antihistamine tablets and steroid nasal sprays. Your doctor may suggest taking a daytime antihistamine proactively, especially on days with a projected high pollen count. 

The bottom line

While you can’t completely avoid pollen, there are steps you can take to limit your exposure and minimize allergies when inside your home. Using a HEPA filter in both your air purifier and HVAC system can help — just make sure to change the filter and perform timely maintenance. 

If nothing helps and your allergies are running (and ruining) your life, it’s time to schedule an appointment with your doctor.





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Introduction to Array length in JAVA:

The length of the array describes the number of elements used in Java. As java is not a Size associated, so Array length helps to overcome it.

Here length applies to array in java, and Size applies to a Java   ArrayLISTcollection object.

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Java ‘Length’ Attribute:

The number of elements is used in the array during its declaration; we can call it as Size or length of the array. For example;

int len1 = myArray.length1;

The below program illustrate the length attributes of the Array elements in JAVA:

Import java.util.*; // built-in library

Class Main1

{

   Public static Void main1 (string [] args)

    {

      Integer [] intArray1 = {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}; // integer value

       String [] strArray1 = { “one”, “two”, “three”}; // string array elements

                   //Print each array and their corresponding length

        System.out.printIn (“integer array contents: “+ Array.to string (intArray1));

        System.out.printIn (“the length of the Integer array stored: “+intArray1.length);

       System.out.PrintIn (“string Array contents: “+ Arrays. ToString (strArray1));

       System.out.PrintIn (“The length of the String array: “+ strArray1. Length);

      }

}

 The output:

Integer Array Contents: {1, 3, 5, 7, 9}

The length of the Integer array: 5

String Array Contents: [one, two, three]

The length of the String array: 3
The above java program reads the length of the given elements and displays the length along with the contents of two different arrays (integers and strings).

Till now I have explained the simple program, now it’s time to learn how to use array in different situations.

They are:

·        Mainly to search for the specific element value in the array.

·        While searching for minimum or maximum values in the array.

Let’s discuss these two different situations in details:

Searching for a value using Length attributes:

As we discussed earlier, iterations can be done through an array using its length attributes. The loop condition in any program will iterate all the array elements one by one until it reaches (length-1) elements. (Since array count in java starts from 0).

Here we are going to use Loop condition to search if a specific value is present in the array or not. To do this, you need to traverse through the whole array until the loop reaches the last element. While performing traversing, each element in the condition will be compared with the existing value to be searched. If any value matches then loop traversing will be stopped as well as program will be terminated.

The below program explains the searching for a data value in an Array:

Import java.util.* ; //built-in library

Class Main

{

Public static void main (string [] args)

      {

         String[] strArray1 = { “UNIX” , “Python”, “ Ruby”, “ Java”, “C” }; // array of string

 

   // searching for the string using a search value function 

       

System.out.printIn (searchValue (strArray, “R”)?” value R found” : “value Java not found”);

 System.out.printIn (searchValue (strArray, “Ruby”)?” value Ruby found”: “value Ruby not found”);

}

 Private static Boolean search value (String [] search array, string lookup)

   {

    If (searchArray! = null)

          {

          int arraylength = searchArray. Length; // compute array length

             for (int i=0; I
                {

                    String value = searchArray[i];

                     If (value. Equals (lookup))

                             {

                                 Return true;

                             }

                    }

        }

 Return false;

       }

The Output:

Value R not found

Value Ruby found

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In the above program example, we have an array of a few programming language names. We have used the function “search value”, this function searches the particular programming language names. In this example, we have used the for loop in the search value function to iterate through the array and it will be searched for the specified names.

Once the correct name is found, then the SearchValue function returns true. If the name is not found then the SearchValue function returns false.

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Find the Minimum and maximum values in an Array:

In this section, here you can also traverse the array values using the attribute lengths and which enables you to find the minimum and maximum elements in an array.

As we know that the array may or may not be sorted. To perform this finding minimum and maximum the array elements, you have to do the comparison with each element once all the elements in an array get exhausted and at last, you can find the maximum or minimum elements in an array, the following programs explain the concept.

The below programming example is for minimum elements in an array.

Import java.util. *;

Class Main

 {

Public static void main (String [] args)

    {

      Int [] intArray1 = {72, 42, 21, 10, 53, 64};   //int array

          System.out.printIn (“the given array: “+ Arrays. ToString (intArray));

       Int min_val = intArray1 [0];            //assigning first element to min value

       Int length = intArray1. Length;

        For (int I = 1; I
       {

                Int value = intArray1 [i];

                 if (value
              {

               Min_val = value;

            }

   System.out.printIn ( “ the min value in the array: “ +min_Val);

 

       }

}

 

Output:

The given array: [72, 42, 21, 10, 53, 64]

The minimum value in the array is: 10

In the above programming example, we have the array elements as a reference element. Then we compare all the elements in a program one by one with the reference element which we have already mentioned in the program. The SearchValue function will be picking one by one until we reach the end of the array in a program.

The next program explains how to find the largest element in an array. The program logic is similar to the previous program, but instead of finding the element which is less than the reference element, we find the greater element than the reference.

The below program illustrates how to find the greater element;

Import java.util.* ; // built-in library

Class Main

   {

  Public static void main (String [] args)

   {

      Int [] intArray1 = {72, 42, 21, 10, 53, 64};  // inserting int array elements

      System.out.printIn (“the given array elements are: “ + Arrays.tostring (intArray1));

     int max_val = intArray1 [0]; //reference elements

     int length = intArray1.length;

     for (int i=1; I
    {

       Int value = intArray1 [i];

        If (value > max_val)

          {

                 Max_val = value;

           }

      }

      System.out.printIn (“the highest value in the array: “+max_val);

   }

 }

The output:

The given array elements are: [72, 42, 21, 10, 53, 64]

The highest value in the array: 72
In the array length, not only int elements, but we can also find the length of floating-point numbers and string elements.

The syntax is as follows:

Float size = array. Length []  // float value length

String size = array. Length [] // string values length

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Programming & Frameworks, array-length-in-java-description-0, Programming & Frameworks, array-length-in-java-description-1

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Programming example:

Public class test1

 {

Public static void main (string [] args)

  {

      Int [] array = new int [5]; //array name is of integer type

      Float [] array = new float [0.1]; //array name is of float type

         String [] array = new string [5]; // array name is of string type

          System. Out. PrintIn (“the size of “+ “the array is “+ array. Length);

         System. Out. PrintIn (“the size of “+ “the array is “+array. Length);

          System. Out. PrintIn ( “ the size of “+ the size of “ + “ the array is “ + array. Length);

 }

}

 

Output:

The size of the array is 4 // integer value

The size of the array is 0.09 // floating-point integer

The size of the array is [4] // string value
One important thing is that the array in java does not any methods to get the length of an element.

The following program illustrates the use of the function to get the length of an array.

Public class ArrayLengthJava

  {

  Private static void printArraylength (String [] myArray1)

  {

    If (myarray1 == null) // to find whether the array values are empty or not

    {

          System.Out.print (“the length of the array can’t be determined. “);

         }

    Else

{

    Int arraylength = myArray1. Length;

System. Out.printIn (“ the length of the array is: “ + arraylength);

  }

 }

 

Public static void main(String [] args)

  {

   String [] javaArray1 = { “ My”, “name”, “Adam”};

   String [] javaArray2 = { “K”, “A”};

String [] javaArray3 = {“1”, “2”, “3”, “4”};

String [] javaArray4 = { “Java”};

   PrintArrayLength (null);

   PrintArrayLength (JavaArray1);

   printArraylenghth (javaArray2);

PrintArraylength (javaArray3);

 PrintArraylength (javaArray4);

}

}

The output:

The length of the array can’t be determined.

The length of the Array1 is: 3

The length of the Array2 is: 2

The length of the Array3 is: 4

The length of the Array is: 1

If you want to access the length of an empty or any null object, a NullPointerException is raised.

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Conclusion:

In this blog, I have explained the Array length in Java with a few programming illustrations. Array length in java is mainly used to find the number of elements used in the program. I hope this blog may help a few of you to learn the basic concepts of java and its examples.

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