Though seemingly innocuous, the combination of wood ash and water can result in an alkaline solution with a pH up to 12, making it a burn risk. A 2-year-old boy developed a significant irritant reaction to his arms and legs while playing outdoors in wood ashes with a water gun. This case is novel because an unintentional, trivial exposure resulted in ulcerative irritant dermatitis. It is necessary to raise awareness of the corrosive risk from wood ash and water in the medical community, especially in primary and emergency care settings, to improve recognition of ash-water burns and irritant contact dermatitis and to ensure appropriate treatment. Pediatric Dermatologyhazardous to eyes, skin, and mucous membranes. 1,2,4 In our case, the child benefited from thorough washing of the skin followed by wound care with topical hydrocortisone and antibiotic ointments.Seven cases of such burns were identified in the literature, and all were quite severe. In five cases, patients applied wood or coal ash with water or oil as a poultice to various areas of the body as a home remedy for pain. The poultices were left in place for as little as 15 minutes and up to 12 hours. 1,3,4 Another patient applied wood ash and oil to his hands and face for a traditional Austrian festival, resulting in superficial ulcerations to the face and full-thickness burns to his hands. 4 The last case, an unintentional exposure, described a patient who was distributing wet ashes by hand as garden fertilizer. 2 All scenarios resulted in full-thickness burns and necrosis, which required surgical debridement and skin grafting. [1][2][3][4][5] While chemical exposures causing contact dermatitis are relatively frequent, those from wood ash are distinctly uncommon and the source of the injury may not be readily recognized. This case should alert dermatologists, primary care providers, and emergency department personnel to the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of ulcerative irritant dermatitis resulting from wetted wood ash.

The method of poisoning flies by the exposure of solutions of sodium arsenite and sugar is one that has been advocated by entomologists in Italy and in South Africa for some years, and yielded good results in Mesopotamia in 1916; for in hot climates, where flies come readily to sugar solutions, the use of an outdoor poison is specially valuable. But there are obvious disadvantages in using any arsenic solutions; for not only are they poisonous in themselves, but the disposal of residues is not easy, as the arsenic and sugar remain poisonous if thrown away, or if they dry on sand or soil. It would thus be useful to substitute for arsenic some compound less poisonous to man and less stable in a soluble form when thrown away.