New Melbourne hay fever technology will ‘help people better manage their day’

A new Australian-first automated pollen counter at the University of Melbourne is expected to revolutionise hay fever management.

The counter, installed on a rooftop at the corner of Swanston and Elgin streets, will replace manual counting which has been conducted for three decades.

“Everyday we used to go out and manually count that slide, and we would provide a daily average of how much grass pollen was in the air,” coordinator of the Pollen Count at University of Melbourne, Professor Ed Newbigin, told Stephen Quartermain and Emily Power, filling in for Ross and Russel.

“This is an automated pollen trap and it’s counting on the fly.”

The constant gathering of pollen data by the new counter will help with pollen forecast accuracy and specificity, allowing researchers to produce several forecasts for different times in the day, rather than the current forecasting which only provides one daily reading.

The change could have a massive impact on hay fever management.

“That’s going to help people better manage their day,” Dr Newbigin said.

See the grass pollen forecast HERE.

Press PLAY below to hear more about the new technology