Causes or Cures Public Health is Weird: Are Poinsettias Really Poisonous? A Holiday Health Myth (with Eeks) — Bonus Episode
*Disclaimer* This episode is part of the Causes or Cures Public Health Is Weird bonus series and is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you’re worried about a child or pet eating a poinsettia, contact a medical professional or veterinarian. This podcast is not a poison control center. :)
Every December, poinsettias show up, and so does the panic.
Suddenly, a festive red plant is treated like antifreeze with leaves: dangerous to kids, deadly to pets, and one accidental nibble away from an emergency vet visit. But where did this fear actually come from, and does the evidence support it?
In this bonus episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks dives into one of the most persistent holiday health myths and asks a very public-health question: How did a weak claim turn into a century-long panic?
Using poison-control data, toxicology studies, veterinary evidence, and a little personal history (including a dog named Barnaby and the hazards of NYC sidewalks), this episode unpacks what poinsettias really do, and don’t do, to humans and animals.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Where the myth of the “deadly poinsettia” originated and why it stuck
- What large U.S. poison-control data shows about poinsettia exposures in children
- Why poinsettias behave very differently in real life than in our imaginations
- What toxicology studies in animals actually found (hint: no lethal effects)
- What the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center reports when pets chew on poinsettias
- Why dose and curiosity matter more than fear
- How risk is often exaggerated when kids, pets, and holidays collide
- Whether Dr. Eeks would let her own pets near a poinsettia (spoiler: probably not, but not for the reasons you think)
- A Christmas legend behind the poinsettia...and a gentle reminder that miracles don’t pause for plant anatomy
Public health takeaway:
Not everything we fear is dangerous. Sometimes fear does the exaggerating, not the risk.
Work with me? Perhaps we are a good match.
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References:
All scientific references discussed in this episode are below and available on the accompanying blog post at BloomingWellness.com.
- New York Botanical Garden Article: Dispelling a Seasonal Myth: For Humans, The Poinsettia is Not a Toxic Plant – Science Talk Archive
- Krenzelok, E. P., Jacobsen, T. D., & Aronis, J. M. (1996). Poinsettia exposures have good outcomes… just as we thought. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 14(7), 671–674.
- Evens, Z. N, & Stellpflug, S. J. (2012). Holiday Plants with Toxic Misconceptions. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Ca