Press Release

Pollen Count Fact Sheet

The Asthma and Allergy Research Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, provides a daily pollen count. The free service is available by calling (973) 972-6518.

The UMDNJ pollen and mold station is certified by the Aerobiology Committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. It is the oldest certified station in New Jersey and in the New York metropolitan area.

How the pollen counter works:

More than 200 types of pollen and mold spores are collected daily on rotorod devices mounted on the roof of the Doctors Office Center of the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

The rotorod sampling device has a motor that spins the plastic rods every 10 minutes for 30 seconds. After a 24-hour period, the rods--coated with grease to make the particles adhere--are removed, stained to make the material visible and examined under a microscope.

The count is reported as the number of grains per cubic meter of air. A count of 0-20 is considered low, 20-200 medium and more than 200 high. People have varying susceptibility to pollen and these figures represent general guidelines.

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