Know Your Poison Plants To Avoid Painful Skin Rashes
By Jennifer D. HansonMD
In Vermont, we love the outdoors. Don’t let poisonous plants spoil your time outdoors. You can’t prevent every mishap, but there are a few ways to prepare and protect yourself and your family while enjoying hiking, taking your dog for a walk, biking, and walking in nature.
Poison Parsnip, Poison Sumac, and Poison Ivy
As a provider at Community Health, we treat the itchy, often painful rashes associated with exposure to poisonous plants that grow wild alongside roads and unmaintained areas in Vermont.
Knowing what those plants are and being able to identify them at their various stages of growth is 90% of the battle. If everyone were familiar with what poison parsnip, poison parsnip, and poison ivy look like, then that would be the biggest avenue to prevention.
A rash occurs when the oils or sap of the plant come in contact with your skin. If you’re going to be in an area where these poisonous plants grow, the best way to prevent these rashes is to wear lightweight, light color, long sleeves, long pants, and gloves. Wearing these clothes can be a barrier from coming into direct contact with the poisonous plants.
Unless those clothes, including gloves, shoes, and pants, are washed appropriately, you can continue to spread those oils, even if you are not next to the plant because the oil is on your clothes.
The plant toxins can cause itchy rashes and painful boils. The first line of treatment is using various over-the-counter medications, a non-drowsy antihistamine, and topical cortisone.
Wild Parsnip
Wild parsnip is an invasive weed that produces yellow flowers that look like Queen Anne’s Lace. It can grow up to 4 feet tall and is found in Vermont and New York State as well as most states in the U.S. It is commonly found growing along roadsides, in pastures, abandoned fields, paths, and utility rights-of-way.
If you come in contact with wild parsnip sap, you should immediately cover the exposed skin to prevent a reaction to sunlight. Wild parsnip produces a sap, or plant juice, that can cause burns to the skin in the presence of sunlight. In some cases, the burns are like second-degree sunburns that can cause painful rashes and raised blisters. If you get some of the sap on your skin, wash your skin thoroughly with soap and water as soon as possible. Then, protect your exposed skin from sunlight for at least 48 hours. If you experience a skin reaction, call your healthcare provider.
Poison Ivy
The old saying “Leaves of three, let it be!” is a truly helpful reminder for identifying poison ivy. Eastern poison ivy is typically a hairy, ropelike vine with three shiny green leaves budding from one small stem. The leaves may be red in the fall. It may have yellow or green flowers and white to green-yellow or amber berries.
A cautionary note – never burn poison ivy! The smoke contains particles that can cause serious injury to the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract.
Poison Sumac
Poison sumac is a woody shrub that has stems with 7-13 leaves arranged in pairs. It may have glossy, pale yellow, light green, or cream-colored berries that sag downward on its branches. The non-poisonous sumac has red berries. Also, each stem on the poison sumac plant has a cluster of leaflets with smooth edges.
During the fall, these leaves turn bright red. You’ll find poison sumac in swampy areas or deep in the woods.
Reactions to Poison Ivy and Poison Sumac
An oil called urushiol is what causes a rash. The oil is present in all parts of the poison ivy and sumac plants, including the leaves, stems, flowers, berries, and roots. Even indirect contact with urushiol can also cause the rash. This may happen when you touch clothing, a pet who has it on their fur, gardening tools, or other objects that have come in contact with the plant.
Treatments usually involve self-care methods at home, and the rash typically goes away on its own in two to three weeks.
It’s typical for the rash to get a little worse in the first two to three days. People tend to think that it’s spreading, but really what’s happening is it’s just developing. If your arm received a huge contact and slightly less on your leg, the arm would develop first because it had a bigger exposure. The leg rash would come out later because it got a smaller dose.
When to Seek Medical Attention
A good time to seek medical treatment is if a large percentage of your body is affected. We can move from over-the-counter treatment to more prescription treatment depending on the severity of the reaction. Some people have more minor reactions, and some people react very strongly.
For poisonous plants, there isn’t any protective treatment to apply to the skin. It’s not like with ticks or mosquitoes where you can use a spray or lotion. Covering exposed skin is the best protection.
Learn which of these poisonous plants are in your area and where you walk so you can be prepared.
Jennifer Hanson, MD, is Associate Medical Director of Community Health Express Care with locations in Castleton and Rutland.
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