Scary stuff

[melchar]

Just talked with my mom. She's been suffering for the past 2 weeks [awful all-body rash, aches] - and the latest doctor she saw gave her a new slew of drugs [that have helped] - AND the speculation that some of her problems have been caused by the hideous air quality.

Or more to the point, that the fires are burning cr@p-tons of poison oak and poison ivy which is going into the air that folks are breathing in - and getting sick thereby. Considering that the smoke is worse here, that's something more to worry about.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. Or craptastic. Whichever.

[nobarking.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that's just awful and really, really scary. I had no idea that burned poison ivy/oak were just as dangerous, if not more so than just touching the plants, but it makes sense. REALLY scary though.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

I've heard about the danger of breathing in burned poison oak because of news stories about it. At least once a fire season there's a story about fire-fighters on-scene getting a lungful and needing hospitalization. But the concept of the oils lingering in the subsequent smoke [that is currently thick enough to *cut* around here] never -clicked- for me before.

[victor-cow.livejournal.com]

Ya the fires have really sucked up here tooo. today is the first time in like a werek we can see more than 500 feet. The air is tolerable now and you cant taste it as much.

[victor-cow.livejournal.com]

That reminds me Shaun Taylor was helping family throw wood in a mulcher even though he used gloves the poison oak or what ever the itchy stuff was became air born and went into his lungs etc... He was in bad shape all better now.
That would really suck!!

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Yick! [hugs to Shaun!] Much sympathy here and I'm glad he has recovered.

poison oak is BAD stuff!

[kaichi-satake.livejournal.com]

Yikes! That's the kind of reaction I was getting to the heavy cigarette (or whatever it was) smoke that hung around here for a while. Just being in the air and contacting the skin can cause the rashes, apparently. I hope she's feeling better--and the air is cleaner--soon.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

There were over 1400 fires burning here [in California] 2 weeks ago. Some were pretty small. But that's down to about 450 right now [according to the news] - but 2 of them are enormous - burning mid-state near the coast - in Big Sur and outside of Santa Barbara. Those 2 are making southern CA's air bad [where my mom is].

There's an awful lot also burning north of Sacramento - collectively called the 'lightning basin' fires because most of them were caused by a dry lightning storm 2 weeks ago.

What the entire state really needs is rain and cooler temperatures. A good soaking. But what we have instead is a drought and hot weather. [those poor firefighters!]