• Keep pets out of the bedroom and off of beds at all times to minimize dog dander accumulation.
• Separately wash human and dog bedding weekly in 130-degree hot water to remove dust mites and dog dander.
• Wipe pets after being outdoors to remove loose pollen from their coats.
• Don't allow dogs to play with the kids' plush toys.

The vaccine works by dampening hayfever sufferer's usual response to grass pollen and encouraging a milder reaction. Tests showed the new vaccine – called Pollinex Quattro – cut the symptoms of one in three patients by more than a quarter, and achieved an average reduction of 13 per cent. In the largest study of its kind, researchers tested the injections on 1,028 patients in Europe, America and Canada, before the start of the hayfever season last year.

The team behind the vaccine, Allergy Therapeutics, based in Worthing, West Sussex, who are due to present their findings at the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology meeting in Barcelona next week, now plan to embark on further trials to test if its effects are permanent. Professor Tony Frew, Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Medicine at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, who led the study in Britain, described the vaccine as a "breakthrough" for hayfever sufferers. Patients in the study "showed significant and clinically meaningful improvement in their symptoms," he said.

Keith Carter, CEO of Allergy Technologies, said: "Because this is a vaccine it does not just reduce symptoms, like antihistamines do, it acts on the immune system to sort of redress its natural balance. "To achieve that in four weeks, without the need for large numbers of injections, is also a massive benefit to patients, many of whom struggled with hayfever year after year. "Although tests are still ongoing, we believe there is a strong possibility that the vaccine could have curative effects - that if we stop giving it to patients they will not return to the level of symptoms they saw before the injections." The company plan to apply for a license for the vaccine early next year, and expect the process to take at least 12 months, meaning that it could be available for use by 2010.

Just in time for allergy season, LG Electronics has introduced a washer/dryer combination that removes up to 95 percent of allergens. The product, called the LG SteamWasher and Dryer Combo with Allergiene Cycle, has a compact design that is meant to fit in closets.

The company had previously released appliances that had been certified as asthma-and-allergy friendly, but the new product is LG's first such product that is both a washer and dryer. The initiative, LG says, is meant to cater to the 70 percent of households affected by asthma or allergies in the U.S.

"Our new Allergiene steam combo extends this industry-first benefit to more consumers who need to reduce allergens in their washable fabrics in order to be better prepared this allergy season," the vice president of marketing for LG's U.S. appliances group, John Weinstock, said in a statement. The product, with a white finish, is available now at a suggested retail price of $1,999.