The fight over our changing global climate grows more intense every year. In this year’s vice presidential debate, the causes of global warming were contested. No matter what the causes and if we can slow them down, millions of allergy sufferers already feel the effects. In a USA Today article, journalist Kim Painter writes that growing evidence suggests that an increase in allergies may be linked to global climate change. The premise is that when it is hotter outside, allergy sufferers are exposed to more allergens for longer periods of time.

This idea is especially true for pollen sufferers. Trees, grasses, and weeds (including the ragweed tormenting many people this fall) churn out more pollen over more weeks when temperatures and carbon dioxide levels rise, says Richard Weber, a Denver allergist who helped write the paper on the link published this month in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. “I think we can expect allergy sufferers are going to be suffering more,” says Weber, a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Avoiding indoor allergens takes more work and more commitment. If allergy sufferers are willing to take multiple steps, they can and will breathe better. Most research (and we at achoo! Allergy agree) suggests that controlling the environment is more beneficial to allergy sufferers than ever before.

“We’ve got really good evidence now that environment matters,” says Jay Portnoy, a Kansas City allergist and president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “Just taking a pill is not going to solve your problem.”

For the past eight years, our mission here at achoo! Allergy has been to promote allergen avoidance and environmental control. Every product that we offer is focused on helping allergy sufferers win this battle. Here are some environmental control measures that will help you breathe better: