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Lundgren, Linnea, and Jeff Wald. "How to Live With Allergies." 05 May 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/how-to-live-with-allergies.htm> 11 May 2008.
by Linnea Lundgren and Jeff Wald, MD
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Controlling Allergies While Camping
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Controlling Allergies While Camping
Enjoying the wonders of Mother Nature often means encountering a mother lode of pollens, molds, poisonous plants, insects, and other irritants. Yet most people don't let those stop them. Escaping the confines of the house, office, and city is, well, a breath of fresh air despite the troubles.
 Campers encounter an array of allergens in the outdoors. |
- Since you wash your bed linens once a week, why not wash your sleeping bag after each trip? You'll wash away pollens and dust mites, among other allergens. Just make sure it's thoroughly dried before putting it away, or mold could grow.
- Once or twice a season rinse off the tent, especially when you've camped during high pollen season. Make sure it is thoroughly dried before putting it away.
- When it's freezing outside, there's nothing like snuggling up in a down sleeping bag. While tempting, allergy sufferers need to be careful. Investigate other sleeping bag fills, such as Polarguard, which will keep you just as warm but sniffle-free.
Contact with poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac often goes hand-in-hand with camping or outdoor activities. Campers by the tentful, both with and without allergies, have had to cut trips short after meeting one of these.
A brief brushing against a poisonous plant won't do too much damage. Contact must be made with the plant's colorless oil, called urushiol. Oil is released when the plant is cut, crushed, stepped on, sat on, grabbed, rolled on, or kicked. It is also released if the brush is burned. Once released, the toxic oil penetrates the skin, and a rash appears 12-48 hours after exposure. The rash typically progresses from small bumps into enlarged, itchy blisters. No body part is immune, although areas most often irritated are the face, arms, hands, and genitals.
Scratching the developed rash won't spread the problem, since by that time the oils have disappeared. However, scratching can cause an infection and can damage the nerve receptors in the skin.
Touching the oil after initial contact -- something easily done -- is what spreads the rash. For example, if you unknowingly walk over poison ivy, the oily residue will stick like glue to your hiking boot. Later, when you remove the boot, you may touch the residue. Since few people wash their hands after removing boots, the oil easily spreads from hands to other areas of the body, such as the face or the genital area if you make the unfortunate decision to use the bathroom.
An outdoor expedition need not be ruined if campers learn to recognize the terrible threesome.
Poison Ivy: This plant has three serrated, pointed leaves and can be found everywhere in the United States. In the East, Midwest, and South it may grow as a climbing vine. In the West and North, poison ivy resembles a shrub. Poison ivy isn't a climber and rarely appears at elevations above 5,000 feet.
Poison Oak: Like poison ivy, poison oak has "leaves of three" and its size differs depending on location. In the Southeast it appears as a small shrub, while in the West it appears as a large shrub.
Poison Sumac: This is the leafy one of the three poisonous plants. A small shrub with two rows of 7 to 13 leaflets, sumac prefers bogs of northern states and swamps in southern states.
Dealing With Poison Ivy
Once identified, the next logical step is avoidance. Unfortunately, kids, pets, and fishermen dreaming about the "big one" aren't in a state of heightened awareness. If they're lucky, someone nearby will be mindful and remove the oil immediately.
- Quickly but gently wash the affected area with lots of cold water and mild soap. Air-dry the skin. Any towels used for cleaning should be washed immediately in hot water and detergent.
- Wearing gloves, wash anything that has come in contact with the victim, including clothing, boots, pets, other people, sleeping bags, fishing poles, walking sticks, etc. Poison plant oils don't magically disappear; they prefer to stick around, sometimes for months.
- Give the victim an antihistamine to help control itching, and dab on calamine lotion or a paste of baking soda and water.
- Contact a doctor if the skin rash hasn't improved in a week.
This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither the Editors of Consumer Guide (R), Publications International, Ltd., the author nor publisher take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.
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Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this How Stuff Works article:
Lundgren, Linnea, and Jeff Wald. "How to Live With Allergies." 05 May 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/how-to-live-with-allergies.htm> 11 May 2008.
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