A Leap Ahead for Pollen Analysis

Nearly a quarter of the population of industrialised nations suffer from pollen related allergies. These allergic reactions range from hay fever to life-threatening anaphylactic shocks. Currently, pollen counts are usually based on information from two day old data.

Helmut Hund GmbH (Germany) now offer a new method for fast and reliable pollen analysis which will prove to be an excellent alternative to the time consuming and error prone methods currently being widely used. The BAA 500 Pollen Monitor offers an automated sampling and handling system, with image acquisition carried out by an automated microscope with an image analysis software package. The highly sophisticated image analysis algorithms ensure highly accurate and reliable data analysis and pollen counts. Concentration data is transferred every 3 hours.

The BAA 500 can evaluate 120 morphological parameters extracted from each pollen species, the powerful image processing algorithms identify and count pollen species with a typical recognition rate of 80 – 90%, a massive improvement on the data achieved by human counters. The analyser’s database currently includes 38 different species of pollen, which will increase over the coming months and years. New species can be analysed by adding their properties to the training data base. Users of the BAA 500 also enjoy simple maintenance procedures: one has to change sample magazine and to clean the inlet filters on occasion.

The BAA 500 is robust, user-friendly and offers autonomous operation for a full month. The system status can be viewed at any time by remote analysis tools. Helmut Hund has over 30 years of experience in the fields of particle measurement and microscopy, which has created a fresh breeze for pollen forecasts.