Someone else’s problem?

When I woke up this morning my eyes were itchy and puffy with full of eye boogers that glued my left eyelids together. I removed the yellow stuff with wet kleenex carefully and now I can see things clearly. This year I reluctantly take anti-allergy pills because the symptoms of the hayfever is worse than before. It improved my nose symptom but does not work at all with my eyes.
Three days ago when it was raining and very cold here in Tokyo, I went to Nagoya. It was cloudy out there but quite warm. I suspect that must be the reason why my eyes got worse while my daughter who has hayfever and taking the same pills seems completely cured of the illness.
The cause of the hayfever used to be said mainly cedar pollens in Japan but a TV program I watched yesterday said that it is its combination with airborne small carbon particles that carry with them a lot of pollutant as well as enormous number of microbes. Where do they come from? China. The monsoon wind picks up pollutants as it blows over the industrial cities in China, rapidly increasing the amount of pollutant in it and then comes across The Japan Sea to come to Japan. By the time it comes to Japan, it contains enough number of polluted particles to make ice on the trees black. An experiment showed that the intake of pollens together with the pollutants makes the hayfever symptoms worse.
The environmental problem in another country is no longer just someone else's affairs.