00:02So thunderstorm asthma occurs every year during spring when there's a risk of basically pollen
00:07and storms interacting to create these pretty challenging circumstances for people who have
00:12a history of asthma and hay fever. Mostly it hits south east Australia and certainly Melbourne's
00:17the capital of the world for thunderstorm asthma and it really runs from October right through to
00:23the end of December with November being the peak period. It's very challenging to predict. We do
00:28have a forecast system which is available in Victoria and the Vic emergency app but we do know
00:32that there's high been a lot of rain a lot of green so a lot of grass and it's rye
00:37grass pollen that
00:37really does drive the pollen that causes thunderstorm asthma so it is a possible possibly we could face
00:43a severe season. Generally rye grass pollen can it's too big to actually inhale so it just gets
00:48stuck in your nose can cause a bit of hay fever but when this comes through with a thunderstorm
00:52it gets lifted up into the air and we think it swells in the humidity it's basically shatters
00:57into small fragments and then the wind gusts in front of the storm bring it back down
01:00and there's such small fragments that you can breathe it in and it can get into the lungs
01:03and that can set off asthma for people who don't even normally traditionally have asthma. Certainly
01:07we had a very large incident about 10 years ago in Melbourne and about a third of the people who
01:13presented that time had no history of asthma but did have a history of seasonal hay fever so we're
01:18asking people who have that history to you know check in with their doctor and see about getting
01:23asthma management plan and knowing asthma first aid.
