What should I do if I touch poison ivy?
A lot of people actually suffer needlessly from poison ivy rashes, simply because they don't know how the poison itself works. It may come as something of a surprise to many people to read that just because you brush against a poison ivy plant doesn't mean you necessarily have to put up with the consequences for several weeks! In fact, you can avoid getting the rash altogether – or at least minimise its severity.
Most people break out in a rash when they're exposed to poison ivy because of an allergic reaction to a toxic oil in and on the plant. This oil, called urushiol, triggers a reaction in about 85% of people, known as urushiol-induced contact dermatitis. It binds to the skin and is absorbed, causing a red rash with raised bumps, which is usually extremely itchy. It can also lead to fluid-filled blisters. Once the rash appears, there's nothing you can do to make it go away. There are plenty of over-the-counter remedies to relieve the pain and itching, and some which claim to speed up the healing process by acting on the urushiol already absorbed by your skin, but there's no outright “instant cure”.
That's why prevention is the best measure you can take. That's all very well, of course, when you're in your own garden and have control over which plants flourish there – you can easily keep it free from poison ivy. However, what happens when you're out hiking or your kids are playing in a wooded area, and someone accidentally brushes against poison ivy, not realizing until it's too late?
Well, firstly, make sure you and your children are well informed about poison ivy. Know the types of places it grows, the different forms it takes, what it looks like, and how to quickly identify it. This is useful to know not only so that you can avoid contact with it, but also so that you realize immediately if you are unfortunate enough to be exposed to it. If this happens, the key is to respond quickly, and most importantly: do not touch your skin! The poison ivy plant will have transferred some of its urushiol oil to you, and the oil is now resting on the surface of your skin. If you touch, rub, or scratch the affected area, you will effectively be rubbing the urushiol into your skin and helping it to absorb. Not only that, but you'll be getting it on your hands and under your fingernails, so you'll quickly transfer it to anything else that you touch!
You're going to need to get the oil off of your skin as soon as possible. The best thing to do immediately after you've been exposed to poison ivy is to apply rubbing alcohol to the area, and rinse it off with cold water. Then you should wash thoroughly with soap and lukewarm water. If you reacted quickly enough, and depending on how badly you were exposed to the poison ivy, you will hopefully have removed the toxic oil from your skin before it had the chance to bind and be absorbed. This will prevent a rash from breaking out. In any case, you should get away with only a very mild rash even if some oil was already absorbed – by washing immediately, you'll minimize the damage.
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