On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 15:21:01 -0600, "Ben Hiel"
wrote:

"Salty Thumb" wrote in message
.. .
"Ben Hiel" wrote in
:

There are over 5 billion people in the world, and you were able to
produce a whopping 2 people who died from ingesting oleander in recent
years. Notice that they didn't die an instant after touching an
oleander leaf - they died after repeatedly ingesting oleander over a
period of days. This hardly represents a dangerous health menace to
humanity.

You asked for a credible news story. I gave you one.

The operative word is ONE. Out of millions of yards and gardens with
oleander, you were able to produce precisely ONE incident - and this
incident occured after eating a lot of it over a period of days. It also
sounds very suspicious to me. If anyone knows what the outcome of the
criminal investigation was I would like to read it.

From another news story about these two deaths:
-----------------------------------------
"Normal children don't go out and eat oleander," said Dr. Richard
Clark, a medical toxicologist and executive director of the California
Poison
Control Center. And even if they did, Clark added, they would either gag on
the
bitter plant or vomit it.

"There is not a single other case in the American literature that I
know of of people eating oleander leaves and dying," he said.
-----------------------------------------

Did you want it
notarized by the Pope or your local Rabbi? Currently, you are the only
person characterizing oleander as a weapon of mass destruction. The
original replier said it was poisonous. Are you disputing that? The best
you can offer is third hand knowledge of what it might taste like.

What I am disputing is his advice: "The first thing I will tell you is toss
it in the trash." If you like oleander but hear the paranoid fables (like
the infamous hot dog skewer urban legend), his advice is stupid.

Millions of people have oleander in close proximity to their their
homes and somehow they manage to stay alive. Meanwhile, people who
live in fear of the Dreaded Oleander unknowingly have yards filled
with DEADLY TOXIC PLANTS READY TO KILL. Hydrangea is toxic. Poinsettia
is toxic. English ivy is toxic. Caladium is toxic. Foxglove is toxic.
Philodendron is toxic. So are azaleas and rhododendrons.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...e&db=PubMed&do
pt=Abstract&list_uids=90376391 Hide in fear from the lovely
philodendron - it's a killer!

Somehow, human beings have existed with these plants for thousands of
years. Should people be fearful of these plants like you fear the
Dreaded Oleander?

I'm more afraid of becoming one of those people who make unwarranted
characterizations. Like yourself. You can turn the soap opera music off
now.

Should people be fearful of these other toxic plants like some fear the
Dreaded Oleander?

Maybe you should try chewing a couple of leaves and let us know (or
not) how it goes.

Maybe you should try getting a grasp of the genuine health dangers you
should be concerned with.

Maybe you should let people decide for themselves what that they are wont
to do. And save the drama for somebody who might be impressed.

Maybe you should admit that the fear of oleander is vastly overblown, and
allow people with a reasonable view of risk to explain why.


1982 Contra costa County, California. A 96 YO woman died after eating
oleander, apparently a suicide.

from "Poisonous Plants of California" ISBN 0-520-05569-1


--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others