butternut squash making my hands weird

[trud]

I thought I'd cut up a butternut squash before, but maybe not.

So I planted Waltham butternuts for the first time this year, and my garden overfloweth. I just chopped one up and noticed that the skin on the fingers of the hand that was holding the squash feel like cardboard. Next time, i wear gloves. Hope this does go away soon. The web knows all:

http://ask.metafilter.com/72225/Butternut-squash-making-my-hands-weird

[Warpy]

1. Wow. I never ran across this one

and I have an Irish hide that breaks out from everything. Dr. Bronner is my best friend, my go to soap when I've got any kind of allergy to track down.

I would suspect that the offending agent is concentrated in the peel and that any remaining in the flesh is destroyed by cooking, else we'd hear of masses of people violently allergic to squash instead of peanuts. I would also suspect that reactions to the peel are fairly rare, since it's not a well known cause of contact dermatitis.

I would suggest gloves for anyone who is allergic to the sap. Acorn and butternut squashes are just too good to pass up.

[kestrel91316]

2. I know what you are talking about. I always though it was just the waxy

skin that had some sort of stuff that transferred to my skin from handling it a lot. It washes/wears off. No biggie. I cut it up all the time and only find it mildly annoying.

[trud]

3. latex

I looked a bit more about this. Apparently there is a protein in squash that is similar to one in latex. I do get dermatitis from latex. Some people seem to have quite severe reactions to butternuts. Mine is 90% gone now, about eight hours later.

Now I'm wondering if I've eaten a butternut squash before. I thought that was why I planted them... :-) I didn't see anyone say they'd keeled over from eating them, though, in fact the opposite.