Allergies! - Worldbuilding for Murder in Heliopolis

Every time the temperature fluctuates I suffer, so I've been thinking a lot about allergies and pollen and dust and all of that good stuff, and trying to consider solutions for allergens in Heliopolis.

Obviously, a huge part of the solarpunk design of Heliopolis is just plants, almost everywhere. When I say it's a green city, I mean it very literally. But to be fair, this sounds like any allergic person's worst nightmare. So how to combat that?

It's not necessarily wow tech that I'm looking for; just solutions for a problem that's increasingly affecting more and more humans. 

So far I'm considering:

• Mostly female plants, especially in more densely populated areas like The Forest. There's a preference for male plants because they cause less mess and live longer, apparently, but they release a lot of pollen. So I'll take the mess and introduce more urban gardeners into the story.
  
  
• Also, bioengineering plants. It's a little iffy because obviously we shouldn't be messing with the natural design of things too much, but if there's a way to effectively neutralize an allergen in a plant without otherwise affecting that plant, that would be a neat idea, so I'll look into that a bit more. I've already introduced the idea of bioengineering and GMOs in the Farms, so it wouldn't be a new addition.
  
  
• Air filters in all enclosed spaces. Pretty straightforward. Managed by PATET, as are all systems. But, just as we'll see with a lot of other systems, this can be a double-edged sword. (Also, apparently we now have wearable filters??? See here.)
  
  
• Anti-allergen solutions, sprays, and cleaning supplies. These, too, already exist (example) (example), and can be used to neutralize allergens in enclosed spaces.
  
  
• Growing more allergy-soothing herbs and plants around the city, which can be freely harvested and turned into teas (ex: ginger, stinging nettle, rosemary, etc.).
  
  
• Specially-made textiles based on a range of fascinating textile solutions that are available today (example) (example).
  
  
• Mite vacuums and other specialized vacuums or cleaning tools.
  
  
• Indoor and outdoor sensors to measure the amounts of allergens in an environment and recommend steps to reduce them (once again, PATET takes care of this).

But aside from all of that, it seems like there have been a lot of strides taken towards eliminating allergies as chronic diseases through immunotherapy and desensitization through the use of shots, tablets, and patches. So perhaps, if with all of the above - which we currently already have - people still have allergic reactions - which we also still currently have - then it's possible that I should be focusing more on the treatment and elimination of allergies...

And, on a final note, I do have a range of diverse settings in Heliopolis, not all of which are bursting at the seams with green plant life. I think there are definitely ways for people to contribute to a solarpunk lifestyle without necessarily being involved in plants. In the world of Heliopolis especially, there is a lot of waste still out there, in the Ruins and beyond, which needs to be cleaned up, recycled, or otherwise disposed of in safe and sustainable ways. Within the city, areas like The Gears and The Peak are probably wonderful places for someone with bad allergies to live, and there are a lot of different biomes within the supercity of Heliopolis alone.

In other words, while I personally enjoy the visual of The Forest, with its apartment buildings all decked out in vibrant plant life, and the Hills, with its rolling knolls and beautiful gardens, and even theFarms, with the vertical farms dripping with green growth, that doesn't mean that these are the only kind of visuals Heliopolis has to offer.

If you have any other ideas for how to manage allergies in a solarpunk world with lots of green, let me know in the comments below!

Learn more about Murder in Heliopolis and other elements of its worldbuilding here.