GIANT HOGWEED as an Environmental Issue?

Both our local newspapers have devoted space this week to the nuisance and worse of this potentially very large weed. I had been unimpressed with the seriousness until I began to compare my symptoms of the last two months with the symptoms to exposure of the giant hogweed. Well! I've been growing a beard off and on for two months partially to hide red blotches and partially to shade my face from the sun. The off and on refers to two recent funerals in which I shaved before attending and sure enough my face got itchy again right after. Whether from pulling a couple of weeds in a corner of my backyard or courtesy of transfer (sap) after my dog was running through the brush at the Woolwich Dam, I seem to have picked up something my skin doesn't like. Of course if I listen to my wife, it's probably just old age!