I heard an acquaintance recently talking about having taken a bath with [some unspecified amount of] bleach immediately after taking a hike in the woods, the reason being that that would wash off any poison ivy “chemicals” and forestall the rash and itching.
A cursory Google search of “poison ivy bleach” brings up some conflicting information. I’m skeptical that the bleach does anything useful with respect to washing off the chemicals, but have had some trouble some qualified medical references that either confirm or refute it. (Lots of unsourced non-medical references, though.)
umm…what kinds of references do you expect here?
ancedote from my personal experience:
I’ve never tried bleach, but I know that washing with dishwashing liquid works fine(if I wash within a couple hours of contact).
My unsourced non-medical theory is that the poison on the ivy leaves is a vegetable oil. And dishwashing liquid cuts through vegetable oils better than soap.
(Imagine washing your dinner plates with a bar of hand soap–it may work, but it’ll take more effort to remove the grease and oil. )
You are too modest. It’s a scientific fact–it’s called urushiol, and it’s definitely an oil. The experts in the link advise against using anything that would merely serve to spread the oil around (such as rubbing alcohol, or, I presume, bleach) instead of actually binding to it and removing it, such as soap or detergent.
Not quite. Base plus fatty esters makes soap. Base plus urushiol does not since it is not a fatty ester. I don’t know if sodium hypochlorite is strong enough to deprotonate the catechol group. Definitely soap and water works for me.
It’s a scientific fact–it’s called urushiol, and