Japanese scientists develop pollen-free trees.

Hay fever got you down? Contact your local government officials.

It worked in Japan. To help alleviate environmental allergy symptoms, The Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute have created a cedar tree that doesn’t produce pollen.

In the 1940s Japanese officials urged citizens to plant cedar trees to help reforest the land destroyed during World War II. By 1960 the trees, being trees, began to produce allergens.

While hay fever was almost non-existent prior to the planting, 15 to 30 percent of Japanese citizens now suffer from it.

Relief may not come quickly. The genetically recombined, pollen-free trees only grow under certain conditions and they are still being developed, tested, and refined.

For now, many people in Japan wear surgical masks as a means of keeping the pollen at bay. The Kowa Company, Japan’s leading manufacturer of the product, plans to increase production by fivefold.

Another manufacturer reports that its sales have doubled from last year.

This year's pollen levels are five times greater than last spring’