Poison Ivy can be found in a lot of places where public works personnel need to work, so learning to identify if, avoid it, control it (if you can), and treat its rash are important precautions to make sure a minor irritant doesn’t become something worse.
What is it and how do I identify it?
- The plant is often a vine, but can be small plants or even shrubs.
- Their clusters of leaves each contain three leaflets, owing to the cautionary rhyme, “leaves of three, let it be.”
- Small, green flowers may bloom between May and July, giving way to small white berries in the fall, leading to the less flowing, “berries of white, take flight” saying.
- Sometimes, Virginia creeper is confused with poison ivy because it prefers similar habitats, but the creeper has five leaflets and doesn’t pose a rash threat.
- While poison oak and poison sumac can present similar problems, they are less prolific in our area than poison ivy.
- The common allergic reaction is a skin rash caused by urushiol, a clear and colorless liquid found in the plant’s leaves,
stem, and roots. Just brushing the plant can get it on your skin and clothes, but if you’re hacking brush, exposure is higher. - The rash be a small nuisance with a little itching for a couple days but it can also turn into a more widespread rash that takes a couple weeks to get rid of. The scratching can introduce infection and that’s a whole other level of problem.
- Exposure is much easier in warm and hot seasons, but can happen in the winter as well, when other plants are dormant.
What do I do?
- First, learn to recognize it and then avoid it.
- Second, cover up. Long pants when you’re going to be working in areas where you might expect it, along with long shirt sleeves if you can stand the heat, and gloves.
- Third, wash up. Preferably cool water within 30 minutes of exposure, but certainly as soon as you are back in the shop, wash up with running water.
- Get under the fingernails also, because if you do scratch, guess what you’re spreading?
- Maybe soap, but avoid soaps that contain oil (think complexion soaps), because they can spread the urushiol and make the skin rash more widespread.
- There are specialty cleaning agents available over-the-counter if you are especially allergic.
- Wash even more frequently if you have sensitive skin.
- Fourth, assume the clothes are covered in urushiol – straight into the washing machine.
- Fifth, assume your tools are contaminated – rinse them off as well.
- And…eradicate the plants? Well, you can try. Maybe if you are really committed to it, you can get rid of it in small areas over time or you can try chemicals, but it is a tenacious (that’s Latin, meaning stubborn like a bear) plant. Concentrate on those first five.
- Burning the plants is a poor idea.
- If you are particularly allergic to urushiol, there are a number of over-the-counter pre-treatments that you can consider – ask your pharmacist.
I got slimed; now what do I do?
- Wash the affected area and keep it clean and dry.
- Concentrate on not itching.
- There are over-the-counter treatments that can provide some relief and take your mind off of itching.
- Burrow’s solution is an aqueous solution of aluminium triacetate and has astringent (a chemical that shrinks or constricts body tissue) and antibacterial properties.
- Calamine, a combination of zinc oxide and ferric oxide. Additional ingredients in lotions include phenol and calcium hydroxide. Everybody knows calamine.
- Steroid cream (hydrocortisone).
- Antihistamines (such as Benadryl)
- Oatmeal bath.
- If it gets more widespread, becomes infected, or starts to gather around the eyes, mouth or genitals, seek medical attention.
Users of this tailgate talk are advised to determine the suitability of the information as it applies to local situations and work practices and its conformance with applicable laws and regulations.
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