First Of All, What Are We Talking About?

Poison Ivy is commonly seen as a small bushy, rather hardy shrub with three leaves. It also has a vine form and is observed as the “hairy” vine growing up many a tree we hash right on by. However, to have a definitive picture of PI isn't possible; it has many appearances. To the right is PI's most common appearance, however, it can look slightly different depending on how much you've had to drink at the beer check. Notice that PI grows abundantly throughout most of the United States.

Poison Oak looks much like PI, but the leaves (again in the “leaves of three”) look like miniature oak leaves (for those of you who don't know what it or an oak leaf looks like, view the picture to the left). Poison Oak causes a contact dermatitis just like PI does.

Poison Sumac is a shrub or bush with two rows of seven to 13 leaflets; most common in the peat bogs in northern United States and in swampy southern regions of the country. It looks extremely similar to regular sumac (which does not cause contact dermatitis). To identify Poison Sumac, look for the fruit that grows between the leaf and the branch. Nonpoisonous sumac has fruit growing from the ends of its branches (was that too much information?). Needless to say, don't play with any plant to determine if it was really poison sumac or common sumac, unless you just really have no life and need something to bitch about.

How Does Poisoning Occur?

Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac have the poisonous sap (“urushiol” pronounced "you-ROO-shee-ol") in their roots, stems, leaves and fruit. The sap is released when the plant is bruised, making it easier to contract Rhus-dermatitis in the spring and early summer when leaves are tender than in the fall and winter hashing time-frame. The sap may be deposited on the skin by direct contact with the plant or by contact with contaminated objects, such as shoes, clothing, tools and animals (this includes hash hounds). Severe cases can occur from sap-coated soot in the smoke of burning plants (probably won't have that too much on trail, but be careful when dealing with PI outside of the hash world as well). At this point I'm not going to bore you with how urushiol bonds to the proteins in the skin within 20-30 minutes and then it causes an “allergic” reaction prompting the body to take ... just don't play with the stuff if you get or feel you may be susceptible to getting the rash.

The Culprit:

All of these plants (ivy, oak and sumac) contain an oily resin called Urushiol (pronounced "you-ROO-shee-ol") which causes the rash. Urushiol has as its dermatitis-producing principle, pentadecylacatechol. This chemical does not evaporate but dries quickly on clothing, shoes, animals and tools.

Urushiol remains potent for a year or longer. Therefore, it is important to wash any tools, shoes or clothing after exposure to poison ivy. The resin will remain active on these articles and can cause a rash months, or even years, later. Removal of the oil with an effective cleanser such as TECNU® is very helpful to avoid contaminating unsuspecting victims in the future. Dish detergent instead of TECNU is a suitable alternative if you have water available. But dish soap takes a lot of rinsing and can create a nice mess. If you are washing leather or something porous, then TECNU is best for that. The main thing you are trying to do is to remove the poison ivy oil from the skin. Alternately, many hashers use rubbing alcohol as a moderately effective, but inexpensive poison ivy oil cutting agent. Still, forestry workers and the like have sworn by TECNU for nearly 30 years—and that’s because they say it flat-out works. Use TECNU within the first few hours after exposure to the plants for best results. You should apply TECNU directly to dry skin—don’t get wet first. Then rub the TECNU around fairly aggressively and rinse it off. The rash causing urushiol will go with it. If no water is available, wipe off the TECNU with a cloth or paper towel. And don’t forget to wash in between your potentially grubby fingers. That’s a favorite place for urushiol to hang around and cause a break out.

Poison Oak

The Odd Origins of Tecnu

While we are on the subject of TECNU, I thought I’d mention the story of how TECNU found its way to being a legendary poison oak and ivy life saver. I figured you might find this story as fascinating as I did. TECNU was originally invented in 1961 during the coldest days of the cold war to be a cleanser that would remove, of all things, radioactive fallout dust. The inventor, Dr. Robert Smith, thought every house in America would eventually have a bomb shelter and TECNU would be a staple in those bomb shelters. TECNU was so named because it was “technically new.” Well the “bomb shelter for every home” scenario never materialized but Dr. Smith had a cleanser that was all dressed up with nowhere to go. Soon after, Dr. Smith moved his family to Oregon where poison oak is abundant. The family homestead had poison oak growing on it and instantly the kids got into it and broke out in a terrible rash. The second time the kids were taken to the doctor’s office for the rash, Dr. Smith’s wife, Evelyn, couldn’t stand seeing her kids suffering like that—especially when she knew she could do something about it. So she marched out into the yard and pulled up all the poison oak plants with her bare hands. She braced herself for getting the rash—for she had broken out with the rash many times in her life. Remember the cleanser, TECNU? They kept it around the house for washing up from dirty jobs, so Evelyn went and got some of the cleanser to wash up with. Evelyn waited for the rash to break out but it never did. She told her neighbor about how she never broke out with the rash and the two of them surmised that it must have been the cleanser that prevented the rash. Evelyn told Dr. Smith and he promptly rubbed some poison oak leaves onto his arm in three spots. He treated one spot with TECNU and left the other two alone. The TECNU spot didn’t get the rash, while the other spots welted up nicely and got the nasty rash. He then took TECNU over to the forestry department at Oregon State University and they tried TECNU. Their cases of poison oak rash dropped dramatically. That led to laboratory testing and eventually to TECNU being sold to utility companies that had workers outdoors. They not only used it for poison oak, but also for instantly removing pitch, creosote and cable gel. Word spread about this amazing product for poison oak and ivy and TECNU eventually made it to store shelves about 20 years ago. One last tidbit—one of Dr. Smith’s kids that got the rash is now the company’s CEO.

Who Gets Pi, Po And Sumac?

It has been estimated that 70 percent of the population is susceptible to poison ivy. Dark-skinned individuals seem less susceptible than others. Elderly individuals and infants are not as susceptible to the resin, but they can still get it. Children become susceptible by age three and are highly susceptible by age 12. You can develop the reaction at any time during your life. Sensitivity is just a matter of being exposed enough times until the body becomes allergic to the Urushiol [personal note: so the medical literature claims - I personally think they (medical community) are somewhat off in this case - I think some people are more susceptible regardless the amount to which they have been exposed, but who am I to say, I'm not a doctor, I just try to play doctor].

Those who are exposed usually pick up the resin on their legs and palms and then transfer it to other areas, often their face and genitals (so quit playing with yourself until you've washed your hands). Seriously, after a few circle beers when you're hitting the tree line to make room for more beer, you need to think about where your hands have been when you've been on trail - I think you get the idea. It only takes about 15 minutes for the resin to begin to bind with the keratin (top) layer of the skin, which then sets the inflammatory process into motion. It is noteworthy that a rash rarely breaks out on the palms, since the keratin layer of the skin is often too thick for the resin to bind there, but it can be spread from the palms to other parts of the body.

The best thing to do if you know you've been exposed to poison ivy/oak/sumac is to wash your skin as soon as possible with something that will cut the urushiol (rubbing alcohol, TECNU, detergent, etc.), in which the resin is soluble. Beer or other beverages containing alcohol will help to dissolve the resin if rubbing alcohol is not available, but will have diminished impact. Soap works, but not as well. If the oil has been on the skin for less than six hours (although bonding can occur in as little as 10-15 minutes), a thorough cleansing with strong soap or oil cutting media, repeated several times, can lessen or even prevent a reaction.

If you do wash with soap or the like, be careful that you just don't spread the urushiol from one place to another. Use a LOT of COLD water. Be aware that the water is simply spreading the oil around; the idea is to use enough water to wash all of the oil from your body.

Do not use hot water, which can open your pores to the oil.

The resin is can be absorbed quickly into the skin. If the oil is on your skin for as little as 10 to 15 minutes, it can lead to an allergic reaction. However, for many they have enough time to finish the hash and then deal with it (but if you know you get PI, try to remove it when you finish trail, don't wait until after the circle or something, because it will probably be too late to prevent it.

If you do get poison, the eruption is characterized by redness, papules (bumps), vesicles (blisters) and linear ("in a line") streaking. Mild cases can last five to 12 days. More severe cases can last up to 30 days or longer. The eruption usually appears within two or three days but may occur within as little as eight hours. The eruption rarely is delayed longer than ten days.

Once the rash appears, the original oil has all bonded to the victim's skin, so it can't be spread to others. Contrary to popular belief, the fluid in the vesicles or blisters is not contagious and will not spread the rash to other parts of your body nor any one else's body. The blisters are the body's natural allergic reaction to poison ivy. If the blisters break and ooze, the fluid does not contain the oils that cause spreading. The rash will frequently break out in stages and continue spreading for the first one or two days.

If new areas of rash appear after three days, you are probably getting re-exposed to the plant oils; most likely from contaminated clothing or shoes, tools, or even your dog that you had on trail (their fur protects them but can harbor the oil for a prolonged period of time). As mentioned above, the resin will remain on any exposed objects such as clothing or equipment for a lengthy time (unless it is cleaned). If you put on your exposed shoes a week later, you can wipe the resin from your shoes onto your face or other areas causing a possible case of PI. If your dog has urushiol on her fur, you can use TECNU to wash her down to remove the potent substance. I’ve never used TECNU for that but a company spokesperson said to saturate the coat with TECNU, massage it around for two minutes, and rinse off thoroughly. The urushiol will come off when you rinse off the TECNU. Then you can bathe your dog as usual.

What Can Be Done To Avoid Or Minimize The Effects Of Poison Ivy, Oak, And Sumac:

All the above useless knowledge does no good unless you can use it to help yourself from getting PI or get some relief once you have it. So the following information is designed to help you make PI just a little more bearable.

Best Method: Don't touch poison ivy and all will be fine.

However, since many hashing trails in North America WILL run you through woods, shiggy and all kinds of areas where there WILL be poison ivy plants, below are listed several things you can do to maybe help prevent or minimize any type of reaction. Most of the following is as reliable as information on the internet can be. I tried to use some common sense, but as I am not a doctor (stated before) ... and most all the legitimate medical sites say to go see a doctor for treatment (I guess they are scared of liability). So, the following is what you can do for both prevention and treatment:

Prevention of Poison Ivy, Oak, and Sumac

The following recommendations are ways to prevent getting poison or removing the urushiol before it bonds to the skin. In the following if I mention poison ivy, I mean poison oak and sumac as well.

Protective clothing: Many people who are affected by poison ivy wear hospital scrubs or the like when hashing through terrain that most likely has poison associated with it. The use of hospital scrubs provides a physical barrier to keep the oil away from you while not being nearly as hot as sweats. It is important to remember that there may be the oils on the surface of the scrubs, so be careful when handling them after the run. Also watch other articles of clothing that you had on trail - like shoes, socks etc. The urushiol is very persistent and will stay with articles of clothing for a long time.

Doctors: Doctors are not needed in most cases of poison ivy - remember like I said above - there is no cure. However, if you are susceptible to severe poison ivy, a shot of cortisone will help if you get it within the first 24 hours. Do not let doctors (or anyone else for all that matters) attempt to make you immune to the urushiol resin by actively exposing you to it, as this will actually make you more sensitive to poison ivy (I had run into that suggestion several places on the net).

Over-the-counter solutions: There are numerous over-the-counter solutions you can buy to remove the urushiol from your skin. Brand names such as TECNU and Zanfel® come to mind. These are fairly well known to hashers and if you have questions on them, just ask around in the circle and someone will be able to give you a run down. There are also products meant to be used to block the urushiol from bonding to the skin such as Ivy Block®. It’s important to note that even if you use a block to try and prevent the urushiol from attaching to the skin, you’ll still have the urushiol on top of the block. Pre-exposure products, as they are called, don’t neutralize or stop the urushiol from being active. They simply provide a layer between the skin and the ultra potent urushiol. So, you’ll need to remove the urushiol anyway—with a skin cleanser like TECNU. One last thing about pre-exposure products—they are expensive ($8-10 per bottle) and need to be re-applied every few hours because they sweat off—but they can definitely help someone that is highly sensitive to urushiol. TECNU Extreme™ is new from the people at TECNU and is in the same ballpark as Zanfel® (paste with scrubbing beads that you add water to) except that the tube is four times as big at 4 oz, and at $15 per tube it costs around $25 less than Zanfel’s $40. All can be found at your pharmacy store, certainly online, or possibly at the local supermarket. I have no information or testing data giving their effectiveness, but ... they exist and may work.

Rubbing Alcohol: Yes, there are more kinds of alcohol than the type used for drinking. Rubbing alcohol, despite being poisonous to drink, still has uses. Carry a small spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol to spray down body parts AFTER a hash. Do not use rubbing alcohol until you are through being exposed to poison ivy. Your skin has natural oils that provide some protection against urushiol. Rubbing alcohol removes those protective oils as well, leaving you susceptible to poison ivy. Also, when using rubbing alcohol, try to spray off the urushiol as opposed to rubbing with a cloth; or if you do rub with a cloth, be careful that you spray rinse after your finished and watch out because the cloth you used may be contaminated with poison ivy residue.

COLD water and detergent: You can also use COLD water and detergent (like disk liquid - something designed to break down grease and oils - typical bath soap will be much less effective), to wash after a hash. You do not want to use hot water as hot water will open up pores and may cause deeper contamination of the skin. Again, try to minimize use of cloths to rub the poison ivy oils as this may spread the oils and will also contaminate the cloth.

Jewel Weed:

Also called Touch-Me-Not, Jewel Weed is supposed to be a poison ivy antidote. The medical community debates this back and forth with opinions on both sides. I know it's a home remedy I grew up with (I don't get poison ivy, but it was used on siblings), but that doesn't mean it works. Jewel Weed can usually be found in the vicinity of poison ivy (isn't nature convenient?). Actually, many antidotes are found in the vicinity of their poisonous counterpart because what property has allowed them to live in peaceful co-existence can be used as a remedy by us. You can use Jewel Weed several ways; either break off a piece on trail and rub an effected area, or make a solution by boiling the Jewel Weed in water. I've also seen boiling Jewel Weed in water and then mixing it 50%/50% with rubbing alcohol to make a solution. Do NOT boil Jewel Weed in rubbing alcohol.

Jewel Weed is also reported to be a good remedy for stinging nettles, bug bites and the like.

Poison Sumac

Treatment of Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac

There is no treatment for poison ivy, oak, or sumac. You can only treat the symptoms. That is why you try to prevent getting it if you are susceptible to it. One particular concern is that of secondary infection from scratching the poison ivy, so most of the treatments involve ways of minimizing the itching desire. Ways to find relief are as follows:

What not to do: I found several references to take a knife, and deliberately scratch your rash until it's raw and then pour bleach over it and the rash will go away. For some reason, I imagine doing that would not only scar, but hurt really, really badly (as opposed to hurting really goodly?). So just as a word of caution, check remedies (especially home remedies) with a couple of sources before trying them out.

Antihistamines, creams, and lotions: Oral antihistamines (like Benadryl® or Chlor-Trimeton®) can help the itching and swelling while hydrocortisone lotions will do much less if anything at all to help. You may want to look for a product like CalaGel®, which not only has an anti-histamine in it, but also has BZ (Benzethonium Chloride), which is an antiseptic to help fight infection. Hydrocortisone lotions are not strong enough to make that much of a difference, but some claim to find minimal relief in using them. If you want to use a hydrocortisone product, look for a gel—they allow much more of the actual hydrocortisone to absorb into the wound—versus an ointment or lotion that is petroleum based. If you want a topical (that means you put it on the affected area of skin) substance, use something like aluminum acetate (Burow's solution) to sooth the itching. Do not use anesthetic sprays as they may actually make your rash more annoying. According to a guy I spoke with that does oak and ivy training for forestry workers, TECNU Extreme™ is a product that not only stops the rash from spreading, but also stops the itching immediately upon application. And you may remember that I mentioned TECNU Extreme™ earlier as something to use after contact to prevent the rash in the first place.

Hot showers/baths: Hot water (as hot as you can stand) will deplete the skin of histamines, removing the itching feeling. This solution will gain you several hours and possible enough time to get somewhat of a night’s rest prior to the itching returning. It’s very important to remember to only do the hot water treatment after you’ve removed the urushiol from the skin. Otherwise the pores open up and it is definitely not good if you still have urushiol on your skin.

As you can see, there are much more options to try not to get PI, as there are options to treat it. So try to be as careful as a hasher can be.

If you have questions please ask. I am not a doctor, but I do have a certain amount of knowledge in this area and I will help as much as I can. Hashing is meant to be enjoyable, and having severe cases of contact dermatitis will greatly diminish your enjoyment; possible to the point that you don't even want to run trail, but just sit there and drink beer. The folks at TECNU answered some technical questions I had and said they would send out a free pamphlet with photos for identifying poison oak, ivy and sumac. Just call 1-800-ITCHING and ask for the free “Facts and Fiction” about poison oak and ivy. This website has some great information as well, www.tecnuextreme.com

Love Canal originally wrote this piece for the Baltimore Annapolis Hash House Harriers and has updated it for the Half-Mind Catalog.