| Dave,
Well thats the million dollar question isn't it. I am going to think out loud here to see if we can figure this one out. Here is what we know.
- Urushiol oil in a dead vine is potent for approx 5 years.
- The urushiol oil is inside the vine unless some wound has
caused it to leak out. When this happens you will see a black spot where the oil has oxidized with air.
- Almost any old growth tree around where I live has had the vine
on it from my observation. What are the chances that wood destined for the mills for lumber or commercial firewood would be thrown away. Mostly likely only the person that cut down the tree would even know it had the vine on it. By the time it was shipped away any evidence of this is long gone. So I think this might happen more than we would like to know.
- Bark, air, and gravity. Some bark is very thick and it would be difficult to burn not to mention absorb oil through it. It is the tree's natural protection. One would think that if the oil was able to get out of the vine... it would first follow the vine down because of gravity or get caught up in all that hair that holds the vine to the tree. You should see black spots where this happened.
- Oil can penetrate wood as when we are staining.
- Burning the oil can cause it to become air bourne where someone may breath it. Forest Fires are major problems because of this fact.
So I think that if you have any oil on the wood, it would most likely be indicated by a black spot. The problem is that some spots can be very tiny. It would take some very unusual circumstances to allow the oil to penetrate through thick bark. Given that you are going to remove the bark you should be ok. I most likely have already done this around here given the amount of poison ivy vines that grow on all my trees. I think the real danger is in removing the bark and vine personally.
I wish I knew for certain.
Anyone know the answer to this? |
