Harmful plants

Scope

All employees exposed to harmful plants.

Regulatory citations

• 29 CFR 1926.21 — Safety training and education.

Key definitions

• Allergy: Immune system reacts to a foreign substance — such as pollen, bee venom or pet dander — or a food that doesn’t cause a reaction in most people.
• Dermatitis: A general term that describes a common skin irritation. It has many causes and forms and usually involves itchy, dry skin or a rash.
• Harmful: Of a kind likely to be damaging or injurious.
• Poison ivy: An allergic reaction to an oily resin called urushiol. Each leaf has three leaflets. A popular saying is, “Leaves of three, let them be.” Poison ivy grows as a shrub and a vine. Its summer-green leaves turn reddish in the spring and yellow, orange or red in the fall. A poison ivy shrub may have white berries.
• Poison oak: An allergic reaction to an oily resin called urushiol. The leaves have three leaflets like poison ivy, but with rounded tips. The leaves’ undersides are fuzzy and lighter in color than the top. Poison oak grows as a shrub. It’s most common in the western United States. The shrub sometimes has white or yellow berries.
• Poison sumac: An allergic reaction to an oily resin called urushiol. A tall shrub or small tree has drooping clusters of green berries. (Nonpoisonous sumacs have red, upright berries. Contact with nonpoisonous sumacs won’t cause an allergic rash.) Each leaf has clusters of seven to 13 smooth leaflets arranged in pairs. Poison sumac thrives in wet, swampy regions.

Summary of requirements

• Instruct employees who may be exposed regarding the potential hazards.
• Instruct employees who may be exposed on how to avoid injury.
• Instruct employees who may be exposed to the first aid procedures to be used in the event of injury.