NextPrevious

The World Around Us

Medicine and Drugs

Will you contract poison ivy if you come into contact with a person who has it?

Poison ivy is caused be a an oil called urushiol, found on the leaves of poison ivy plants. The only way to contract poison ivy is to come into contact with this oil. Thus, if a person who has poison ivy still has some of the oil from the plant present on their skin, they could spread that oil to another person. In most cases, though, by the time a person has a rash, the oil will have been washed away. To be clear, the blisters on a person’s skin who is suffering from a poison ivy rash do not themselves have the potential to spread poison ivy to other people.



Close

This is a web preview of the "The Handy Chemistry Answer Book" app. Many features only work on your mobile device. If you like what you see, we hope you will consider buying. Get the App