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

They can be toxic if they want to. My comment was my reaction to the
usual "Dozen Deadly Dangers of the Holiday Season" that usually appear
in the newspapers this time of year. Maybe it was an over-reaction,
that'd be a Usenet first. Or maybe just a frivolous comment, at one
time those were permitted.



On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 04:09:56 GMT, "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?


"Cereus-validus..." wrote in message
m...
What could be the error in your logic? Lets see........

Either you don't know many people or most attribute their allergic
reaction to something else.

What other possibilities could there be?

Of course, there is that remote possibility you aren't telling the truth.


"Jim Shaffer, Jr." wrote in message
...
On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 00:49:50 GMT, "Cereus-validus..."
wrote:

May those who insist that the Poinsettia is not toxic rub the sap all
over
their bodies and see what happens!!!!!

Most people I know aren't allergic to poinsettia sap.






--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others

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?

A. It's true
B. People who still remember the old wives tale that it's poisonous kill
sales

Pretty much the same reason why any old wives tale about a commercial
product being harmful is strenuously rebuked with evidence until the
believers of the old wives tales are generally thought of as being the
ignorant fools they are.

I'm going to go with the real evidence on this one, and write-off the
old wives tale of them being poisonous as being the unfounded rumor with
no evidence to back it up that it is.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
See the Christmas Lights:
http://www.holzemville.com/xmas2004/

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

The only way to settle this is for paghat to gather up some of her
friends and have them have various poinsettias rubbed all up and down
their naked bodies and post the video on the internet. The friends will
all have to be hot young naked and female for publicity reasons,
otherwise, no one will watch and so effectively prove nothing. I will
volunteer to do all the rubbing for this um very scientific experiment.

Meanwhile paghat can drink a cup of poinsettia tea and refrain from
having her eyes bug out or running off to the bathroom. Later she can
post the results of a colonoscopy showing no weird latex crud lining her
intestines. For show she can crumple some leaves or flowers in her hand
and knuckle her eyes a couple of times for good measure. if she is
blinded, this will make the moles in her garden happy ("ah yes, paghat
the molegirl, she's one of us now!")

for paggers: tickle

for publicity "Cereus-validus..." wrote in
om:

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/child...ency/poinsetti
a/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

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?



Or, conversely, why do certain people cling so tenaciously to a
myth like the toxicity of poinsettias?

What is their real motivation for perpetuating such claims?

billo