It’s allergy season! I am seeing mixed advice: Can pollen be “killed”/damaged so that allergens no longer cause a reaction? Like in a clothing dryer, with steam, or a bleach mix, etc?
Does it degrade overtime, or if some pollen gets on drapes, is it potentially able to cause a reaction for years, unless removed from the drapes?
Thank you!
In: Biology
Yes they can definitely die, they’re living structures that the plant sends out to carry genetic information. Some are very robust and can remain viable for over a year in harsh conditions, others are quite fragile and break down within a few hours.
Whether they’d still cause an allergic reaction or not after they’ve gone inert would depend on how intact the cell surface markers are – that’s whats getting your immune system all flustered.
Dead bacteria/viruses/pollen can still cause a reaction if they’re meaningfully intact. Your immune system can’t really tell what’s alive or not, so it assumes everything is a possible threat.
I’m sure it’s possible to physically destroy them, but managing to do that without also destroying your clothes may be challenging.
It’s important to understand what allergens are. All allergens are protein molecules that your body thinks come from something dangerous but actually aren’t. If you are allergic to cats, your body thinks a certain protein within cat hair is a virus and so triggers your immune system to fight off the “virus”. Pollen is full of biological proteins, many of which look similar to other, more dangerous things.
The thing about proteins is it’s not just what they’re made of that’s important, but how they’re shaped. Two protein molecules that have the exact same elements but are different shapes will be two different things. So if the shape of the protein you’re allergic to changes, your body no longer recognizes it as dangerous
There are lots of ways to denature, or change the shape of, proteins. Heat is the most common (every time you cook food, you’re denaturing the proteins within the food changing them from one state to another), but chemical reactions (like with bleach or soap) can also work. Many proteins are unstable and will denature over time, or they’ll get eaten by bacteria in our environment.
Washing your clothes exposes them to chemicals and heat that will denature those proteins (not to mention just washing them away with the water). Some allergens are more stubborn than others and will stick around for a long time, but most should break down eventually.
If it’s an issue, you can buy sprays with enzymes that break down and denature allergen proteins into other, harmless molecules.
Latest Answers