According to privately compiled storm stats, between 1990 and 2003, the number of people struck dead in the six New England states combined totaled 15. Not bad considering that during the same time period Colorado suffered 39, Texas 52, and Florida 126.
Poison ivy
The online Poison Ivy, Oak, and Sumac Information Center (poisonivy.aesir.com) tells you everything you need to know to be completely confused about the perils of poison ivy. Poison ivy, a common vine found in early-stage second-growth forests (i.e. most of the northeast), and people’s allergic reaction to it is surrounded by myth. The PIOSI consolidates all of them, plus, probably, some scientific facts to paint a convincingly hopeless picture.
Identify poison ivy? Easy. People have been describing it to us for years. It has clusters of three leaves (compound leaves); sometimes shiny, sometimes green, sometimes yellow, sometimes red, sometimes with serrated edges, sometimes with smooth edges, sometimes an inch long, sometimes seven inches long. Who could mistake it for anything else?
Whatever its guise, it’s out there: along every road, in every woodlot, in most back yards. And at its poisonous peak (time-frame varies depending on who you talk to) it exudes a potent chemical called urushiol oil, to which just about everybody is allergic. Fun fact: a quarter ounce of urushiol oil is enough to give an ugly, itchy rash to every human on earth.
Preventions? Cures? They are legion, and perhaps some work for some and others for others and some not at all. Rinsing off the oil with cold water soon after exposure is probably the soundest and most universal suggestion. Other “remedies” include bathing in Clorox, slathering the skin with moist baking soda or oatmeal, exposing the skin to pure oxygen, slathering the rash in Kraft Miracle Whip, and coating yourself in Portland cement. As babes in the woods, we believed the conventional wisdom that rubbing your skin with the resin from a common forest plant called jewel weed would both prevent contamination before exposure and neutralize the wretched oils after. It actually seemed to work. Then again, some people believe in the power of prayer.
Clif Garboden has spent much of his life in intimate contact with nature, and enough is enough. He can be reached at cgarboden@phx.com.
