It’s being called the “yellow calamity” (žlutá kalamita) by the Czech media and yesterday jokes about Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s rapeseed crop being to blame for the presence of the pesky allergen dominated social media.
No matter what you are calling it (pollen, or pyl in Czech, being the proper name) or what or who’s to blame (pine and spruce trees are the culprits, not the Prime Minister), the biggest question for allergy sufferers is: “When will it end?”
Kochrdova attributes the yellow dust that’s coating cars, houses, windows, and gardens to springtime pollens and the rapid rise of warm weather, leading everything to blossom at once.
A Prague pharmacist reported that every third drug being sold is an allergy treatment and that there has been a huge uptick in requests for information on allergies.
So how to get some relief if you are sniffling more than usual?
Over-the-counter antihistamines available in the Czech Republic are listed here; some doctors even recommend wearing a mask during the high-pollen season, things like washing your hair every night and using nasal sprays can also help.
In the meantime, you can manage the pollen in the air with two helpful websites (in Czech) which forecast the presence of dominant allergens: www.pylovasluzba.cz and pyly.cz/pro-alergiky
Watch a cell phone left in a Prague park become covered with pollen in just under an hour here.