Say what you want about the Poinsettia industry and hospitals not wanting
their emergency rooms clogged during the holiday season but Santa Claus is
based upon an actual person better known as Saint Nicholas. Tell the Greeks
that there never was a Saint Nicholas and you will be in serious trouble.

Interesting how all the studies on the non-toxicity of Poinsettias originate
from Ohio State and they also happened to play a role in developing the
improved cultivars we grow today.

Never said that one would drop dead from handling Poinsettias, only that
many people experience allergic reactions to handling them akin to poison
ivy poisoning. Many emergency rooms don't want to deal with that either.

Rat are capable of eating many things that certainly would make us sissy
humans very ill. Everyone except Joe Rogan and a few iron stomached
contestants on Fear Factor perhaps.

"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article ,
"Cereus-validus..." wrote:

The big question is why do so many people so desperately want the florist
Poinsettia to be non-toxic?

What is their real motivation for making that claim?

Real question is how could someone as knowledgeable as you usually seem to
be on a few topics such as succulents refuse to believe the clear &
definitive studies that prove you could feed poinsettias to animals in
controlled laboratory settings where effects can be carefully measured, &
there is zero toxic effect, not even a contact dermatitis response from
handling the poinsettias & getting the latex on your nose & face while
eating the bracts, leaves, stems, stamins, or roots -- across the board
non-toxic.

Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Agricultural, Ohio State
University horticultural extension, attempts to make it easy to
understand, stating: "Research conducted at The Ohio State University and
other institutions has proved the old wives' tale that poinsettias are
poisonous to be false."

See for example:
Grabmeier, Jeff. ³Despite the Myth, Ohio State Study Proved Poinsettias
Non Toxic.² The Ohio State University News, December 15, 1988.

Or see this classic study:
Stone, R., & Collins, W. "Euphorbia Toxicity in Rats", Toxican volume 9,
1971. This report on the Ohio State University study discovered rats could
thrive on a diet of poinsettias with zero toxic effects, not even
dermatitis from handling all parts of the poinsettias to eat it. Other
euphorbias were toxic, but not this one. Extrapolated to humans it was
stated in no uncertain terms that a 50 pound child would have to eat the
equivalent of 500 to 600 poinsettia bracts to experience even a mild
stomach upset. That kid would get sick faster eating that much mashed
potatoes with gravy!

For an on-line resource, see this North Arundel Hospital overview on the
harmlessness of poinsettias:
http://health.northarundel.org/childsafety/home_safety/ency/poinsettia/poinsettia.htm
Whatever the voices in peoples' head tell them, believe me, this hospital
isn't being propogandistic; they're heading off pointless wastes of
everyone's time when parents freak out needlessly & use up emergency room
resources because their kid gummed a poinsettia.

Rutgers University offers a concise little fact sheet entitled in large
capital letters Poinsettias Are Not Poisonous exclamation mark:
http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~floriculture/publications/poisonpt.htm
See at Ohio State U this reminder not to worry about this non-toxic plant
being toxic:
http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~news/story.php?id=2763

Many if not the majority of plants in its family are toxic or can cause
skin blistering, but poinsettias is one many exceptions. Without a
specific allergy that would make someone equally allergic to pencil
erasers & anything else with a latex base, poinsettias are harmless.
Controlled studies prove them non-toxic; major universities and their
horticultural extensions say they're non-toxic; poison control centers say
they're non-toxic; the Center for Disease Control says they're non-toxic;
growers say they're non-toxic. Of these only the growers would have any
cause to be propogandistic about it, but would be sued into non-existence
if some kid or pet got sick from false claims of safety.

Heck, even the National Security Institute calls this one of "the most
widely believed folklore myths" with zero credibility:
http://nsi.org/Tips/poinsett.html
and if these paranoia-profiteering national security wonks can't work up
some paranoia against poinsettias, why should you? Of course, NSI does
profit from espionage, so maybe they're just covering up for the how
poinsettia vendors who have put listening devices in the poinsettias & the
flowers are reporting your every move to the government.

Really there's nobody thinks they're toxic but people who are kinda
ignorant of the topic & thereby continue to believe a baseless fable.

So my question is, is someone forging your posts to make you look less
knowledgeable than you would ordinarily appear to be, or have you really
lost your mind? Because this is exactly the kind of mistake you are so
often ribbing others about, as though it takes a complete nincompoop to
persist in believing the unreal is real. You've been posting this
nincompoop-style error about twice a day. What's next? Are claims of the
non-existence of Santa Claus, The Great Pumpkin, & the Easter Bunny
likewise mere propoganda? If the science is not to be believed, then maybe
they're also wrong that monkshoods ARE toxic & we should use the roots as
relish. Maybe aspirin doesn't actually help headaches. The thing about no
longer believing the actual science of a thing is that pretty soon all
realitly is up for grabs. You could fall off the planet because there's
nothing to guarantee gravity will keep working.

The only things ACTUALLY toxic on a poinsettia are apt to be the wide
array of chemicals used by growers to keep stems from splitting, to induce
rapid growth, & to keep insects from nibbling on them before people with
bad taste in flowers buy them.

your pal,
paggers

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com