POISON IVY

either of two species of white-fruited woody vines or shrubs of the cashew family (Anacardiaceae), native to North America. The species found in eastern North America (Toxicodendron radicans) is abundant; a western species known as poison oak (T. diversilobum) is less common. (Some experts prefer to designate both as the genus Rhus.) The plants are highly variable in growth habit. The leaves have three leaflets, which may be hairless and glossy or hairy, entire, toothed, or lobed. The plant is poisonous to touch, producing in many persons a severe inflammation of the skin, or dermatitis. The toxic principle, urushiol, is produced in the resinous juice of the resin ducts of the leaves, flowers, fruits, and bark of stems and roots but not in the pollen grains. Being almost nonvolatile, the urushiol may be carried from the plant on clothing, shoes, tools, or soil or by animals or by smoke from burning plants to persons who never go near the poison ivy plants. Poisoning may occur if clothing is worn a year after contact with poison ivy. Types of poison In regard to poisoning, chemicals can be divided into three broad groups: agricultural and industrial chemicals, drugs and health care products, and biological poisonsi.e., plant and animal sources. These three groups, along with a fourth category, radiation, are discussed below. Agricultural and industrial chemicals Agricultural chemicals The majority of agricultural chemicals are pesticides, which include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, fumigants, and rodenticides.