POISON
My son has a pretty bad rash on his arms, so, in trying to think what could have caused it, I remembered that a few days ago he was in the front yard, pulling leaves off of bushes and trying to make a bird's nest with them. Then I remembered that some of the plants in our front yard are poisonous, so I went directly online to see if touching oleanders=rash on skin. And what did I find out about that oleander shrub?
"All of its parts are very poisonous. For example, one leaf is enough to cause death."
"The characteristic poisoning symptoms are as follows: nausea, vomiting, accelerated or retarded heartbeat, and cardiac arrest."
"So powerful is this poison that a single leaf of an oleander can kill a child. And, many people have died merely from eating steaks speared on oleander twigs and roasted over a fire."
"TOXICITY RATING: High. Ingestion of even small amounts can kill."
Oh. My. Gosh. Why has nobody told me this before?
That plant is so outta here. I may not sleep well until it is gone.
"All of its parts are very poisonous. For example, one leaf is enough to cause death."
"The characteristic poisoning symptoms are as follows: nausea, vomiting, accelerated or retarded heartbeat, and cardiac arrest."
"So powerful is this poison that a single leaf of an oleander can kill a child. And, many people have died merely from eating steaks speared on oleander twigs and roasted over a fire."
"TOXICITY RATING: High. Ingestion of even small amounts can kill."
Oh. My. Gosh. Why has nobody told me this before?
That plant is so outta here. I may not sleep well until it is gone.
Comments
And second you mention the reason why I could never live in Arizona. Things like poisonous plants -IN YOUR OWN FRONT YARD!!!
Also, I think I might be commenting only minutes after you posted which makes me looks like I am a stalker. Yes a stalker -ON YOUR OWN BLOG!!!
But it sounds like botany might be your new obsession???
D--He just has a rash on his arms, but no cardiac arrest yet, so I think he's fine.
CJane--I can't think of anything to say, except thank you, tell me about it, I'm not worried, and I doubt it.
As for the movie/book, read the book and forget the movie. I loved the book but then again I am a social worker and it was about a kid who bounced around from foster care placement to foster care placement, so I do have a biased opinion.
and please don't stop the blog phase.
Anyway, toxicity of the oleander conceeded (and disdained) (and thank you all for the worry for his well-being), he's much more likely to go into cardiac arrest from PTSD from crying and wining about Daddy putting on lotion to cure the exima (which has been a frequent occurance in our house in the last year or two) than he is to die from impailing himself on or ingesting oleander--which is to say, cardiac arrest is not very likely.
And I'd just like to say that I played with oleanders all the time growing up, and here I am just fine.
I started reading the book in law school. It's trash. An unabashed aim at landing the author on the Oprah book club. It worked. Jocelyn, if you're reading, there's maybe your avenue for getting on the show.