2023-06-22 04:15:00
FFP2 masks, fabric or surgical had almost disappeared from the landscape, here they are back thanks to the pollen season, which is particularly virulent at the end of spring.
While the number of allergy sufferers continues to increase (from 30% today to half of the world’s population in 2050, estimates the WHO), these masks can indeed represent a solution against pollen allergies.
Because the eviction of the allergen, recommended in the event of food allergy for example, is difficult to implement for pollens. And desensitization takes timebetween three and five years.
This leaves first-line treatments, antihistamines that reduce symptoms… and masks. But is this solution really effective?
This is what researchers from Alyatec, a clinical trial center in Strasbourg specializing in the field of allergic and environmental diseases, wanted to measure.
Twenty-four patients allergic to birch pollen and presenting with asthma associated with allergic rhino-conjunctivitis were brought together in the centre’s “allergen exposure room”. Half the group wore a surgical mask, the other half did not.
Positive effect
All were exposed to these particularly allergenic pollens, in the same way as grass pollens. Important detail: they were not allowed to take their usual treatment (antihistamine or corticosteroids) in the days preceding the test.
Review of the experience, published in the Revue Française d’Allergologie last December: “The median time for the onset of an immediate bronchial response in the group without a mask was 37 minutes, and 67 minutes in the group with a mask. ”, or about twice later.
And after one hour of exposure, “the number of patients in the group with the mask still present in the environmental exposure chamber was twice as large as in the group without the mask”.
Even if this study has limitations (small sample, only one model of mask tested), it still shows “a tendency for masks to delay the time of onset of allergic symptoms”. In the absence of serious symptoms, which require the taking of appropriate medication, this solution therefore deserves to be tested.
Source: National aerobiological monitoring network – Revue Française d’Allergologie – June 2023
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