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Re: Help: rashes caused by handling produce

Hi all
Michelle gave a comprehensive reply which made a lot of sense.
We found in growing parsley year round that,  during autumn ( no fall here -
leaves fall all the time) aka the wet season that each year some of our
staff would develop rashes from harvesting. Whilst we aren't organic, we
didn't spray the parsley, so pesticides can be ruled out. It may not be
oxalic acid but it seemed clearly a component of the parlsey.
It was also a time of year that redback spiders(like the American black
widow - fairly poisonous) liked to move into the plants. We were never
bitten but got regular shocks from these quiet creatures that carry a big
stick. 
Two good reasons to give parsley a miss.

David


 At 11:40 02/09/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Howdy, all--
>
>> The produce manager at a food cooperative in Madison, Wisconsin is
>> desperately trying to find out why she and many of her staff have
>> been suffering from serious rashes on their hands and arms over
>> the past few years or more.  
>
>Some quick thoughts from one of the resident
>chemical-health-stuff-watchers (that's a technical term).  
>
>1.  Some people's skin reacts to, or develops a reactivity to, oxalic 
>acid, which is found in some leaves.  
>
>2.  Bristly leaves (like squash) can tattoo the skin with whatever
>happens to be on the bristles--plant toxins, mold spores, bug feces,
>chemical drift.  These can provoke reactions or reactivities.
>
>3.  People whose skins are often wet can develop additional problems;
>any potential reactive substances (plant toxins, mold spores, bug
>feces, chemical drift) are soaked into the skin and basically kept in
>solution there.  
>
>The winter I spent as a sandblaster on the Delaware River waterfront,
>I thought my skin would dissolve, and not from the sand. At the time
>we chalked it up as "river rash," which is what my father and others
>who worked at the shipyard who often had it, called it.  I now figure
>it was the combination of constant dampness (sweat *and* air) and the
>chemicals and crap coming off the lab benches and other stuff we were
>blasting. And who knows what the hell else.
>
>4.  Some pesticide residues induce rashes in some people.
>Increasingly, however, MSDSs (Material Safety Data Sheets) don't
>report acute or nontoxicological effects, so they're hard to track or
>identify.  Which is why some people choose to avoid them altogether,
>wherever possible.
>
>5.  It could be some combination of all of the above--interactions 
>between different substances.  Including interactions with body care 
>products.
>
>My experience with this stuff is it's often hard to find ONE cause of
>such body-reactions because there generally isn't ONE cause. (That's
>the classical toxicology model--one cause, one reaction, one LD50.)
>But sometimes there are ways of reducing the overall load on a body
>that lead to improvement of acute *or* chronic health problems.
>
>Sometimes the only ONE place to start is the symptom itself--in this
>case the skin rash--and learn more about how to support the body's
>healing of the symptoms.  It takes detective work.  I personally
>found that when I cleaned up my entire physical and environmental
>act--to take the maximum possible load off my body--a lot of chronic
>reactivities went away.
>
>These folks might want to contact environmental medicine/clinical
>ecology folks for advice.  The Community Pharmacy offers contacts.
>The Human Ecology Action League and the folks in Evanston who publish
>"The Canary" newsletter might also have leads.
>
>peace
>michele
>
><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>Michele Gale-Sinex, communications manager
>Center for Integrated Ag Systems
>UW-Madison College of Ag and Life Sciences
>Voice: (608) 262-8018   FAX: (608) 265-3020
>http://www.wisc.edu/cias/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>The course was intense.  Picture if you will a 
>common kitchen funnel.  Stick it in the top of 
>my head and drop a car in it.  --Mister 3D
>
>
David, Heather, and Matthew Hine
Atkins Rd, Cawongla
via Kyogle, NSW, Australia   2474
ph/fax: 61 066 337162.