Mini First Aid Merseyside

Are you a PTFA member for your local school? Home educator or a teacher who’s interested in your students learning life saving skills? Did you know it’s part of the curriculum? Hands on is always better than a video on the screen!
Mini First Aid Merseyside offer a range of classes suitable for children aged 3 years old and up!
Email [email protected] for more information 💚

Cow parsley is a common plant in the UK, we are seeing it everywhere at the moment, but did you know that there is a similar, related plant, called Giant Hogweed, which is toxic and can cause severe skin blisters*, burns and even blindness?

Toxic components in the sap of leaves, stems, roots, flowers and seeds of Giant Hogweed can be transferred to the skin by touch, and they make skin super sensitive to sunlight, which can then cause rashes, burns and severe blistering.

NHS guidance is to wash the area of skin with soap and water as quickly as possible, keep it covered and seek medical advice.

If a burn appears, treat it as you would any skin burn:

• Stop the burn process as soon as possible.
• Cool the skin with cool running water for 20 minutes
• Cover the burn with cling film.
• Treat the pain from a burn with paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Please see your GP or call 111 if symptoms are severe or persistent.

Swipe the slides to see how to identify Giant Hogweed - if in doubt, do not touch and please contact the council if the plant is on council-owned land.

*Please note, we have not been able to source an image of how skin blisters due to hogweed would look on black or brown skin - if this has happened to you and you would like to share the image to help others understand how this presents, please DM us 💚

Front Slide Image credits:
Blister image: Dragan Marjanovic, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Hogweed Image: This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.