Unsurprising. A lot of ‘natural’ additives are actually worse for you than the synthetic alternative.
The most obvious example I can think of is almond flavouring. The natural variant often contains traces of cyanide, which is not great even in small quantities.
Bit of a tangent, but I think most people would be surprised how many of the plants in their garden are deadly. And because I don’t want to give anyone any ideas, usually that death is slow, incredibly painful, and involve you shitting yourself endlessly. Wear gloves and don’t burn stuff you don’t recognise.
Most people think they might get a bit ill or have a bit of stomach issues. Perhaps they know to avoid oleander or foxglove. Most don’t realise they’d die a painful and entirely unpreventable death after eating a relatively small amount of leaves or seeds of other common garden plants.
Hell, I was trimming my yew (taxus baccata) a few years ago and even the small amount of needles I accidentally got in my mouth made me quite ill. No antidote, so you’ll die a painful and prolonged death.
Then there’s the whole hemlock thing, where people confuse it with carrots or parsley. Also no antidote, just a long and painful death.
All too often, you’ll see people trimming or burning highly toxic plants or not wearing gloves while dealing with plants which contain toxins which can be absorbed through the skin.
And then there’s the people who think wood is wood, and toss whatever on the fire.
As far as toxic to touch I don’t think I am aware of anything in the UK you are realistically going to come into contact with.
Giant hogweed (related to hemlock, looks a bit like parsley). Looks like normal hogweed, but far more toxic. Won’t kill you from touch alone, but not a great idea to handle it without gloves. Found all over the UK.
Variants of hemlock are also abundant in parts of the UK. Quick google turned up a story about it growing near a school. Obviously parents panicked, which is silly because it grows all over the place. Hemlock water dropwort is the super poisonous one, found all over the place but I doubt most people’d realise. Left is hemlock and right is cow parsley:
Obviously the person holding them is touching the hemlock with bare hands, which is a bad idea.
Skin irritation, rash, potentially for toxins to be absorbed through the skin, but especially dangerous if you have a small cut or abrasion you may not have noticed. Touching your eyes or nose after handling is also problematic and an easy mistake to make if you’ve been around plants that easily cause irritation.
All the advice I’ve ever read says don’t touch. Don’t know of a grown adult who’s ever died doing so, but it’s nasty stuff. I googled (duckduckgod?). Eating 6 leaves is enough to kill you, seeds and roots even less.
Here’s a bbc countryfile article. The problem with some of these poisons is that it takes a while before you know you’ve been poisoned and even longer for you to die an unpleasant death.
Luckily it’s not as bad as the organometalics. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Karen Wetterhan. Chemistry professor who dropped one or two drops of dimethylmercury on her protective gloves. Thought nothing of it. Went through her latex glove, absorbed through her skin within 15 seconds, she didn’t notice it happening. Took her 10 months to die of mercury poisoning.
Shit’s no joke. My mother’s a pharmacologist who worked in the industry. She has chronic leukemia now. My father also worked in the chemical industry. He has Parkinson’s now. Environmental exposure is likely to be a factor or have exacerbated things for both of them.
TLDR: wear gloves and protective gear when necessary.
Unsurprising. A lot of ‘natural’ additives are actually worse for you than the synthetic alternative.
The most obvious example I can think of is almond flavouring. The natural variant often contains traces of cyanide, which is not great even in small quantities.
Bit of a tangent, but I think most people would be surprised how many of the plants in their garden are deadly. And because I don’t want to give anyone any ideas, usually that death is slow, incredibly painful, and involve you shitting yourself endlessly. Wear gloves and don’t burn stuff you don’t recognise.
Why would they be surprised? Don’t most people know not to eat random unidentified plants?
Although my garden is filled with things that are edible because that is the point of growing them.
Most people think they might get a bit ill or have a bit of stomach issues. Perhaps they know to avoid oleander or foxglove. Most don’t realise they’d die a painful and entirely unpreventable death after eating a relatively small amount of leaves or seeds of other common garden plants.
Hell, I was trimming my yew (taxus baccata) a few years ago and even the small amount of needles I accidentally got in my mouth made me quite ill. No antidote, so you’ll die a painful and prolonged death.
Then there’s the whole hemlock thing, where people confuse it with carrots or parsley. Also no antidote, just a long and painful death.
All too often, you’ll see people trimming or burning highly toxic plants or not wearing gloves while dealing with plants which contain toxins which can be absorbed through the skin.
And then there’s the people who think wood is wood, and toss whatever on the fire.
I thought yew was more commonly known to be deadly? Though the red berries IIRC are safe, as long as you don’t eat the seed which is also deadly.
As far as toxic to touch I don’t think I am aware of anything in the UK you are realistically going to come into contact with.
Giant hogweed (related to hemlock, looks a bit like parsley). Looks like normal hogweed, but far more toxic. Won’t kill you from touch alone, but not a great idea to handle it without gloves. Found all over the UK.
Variants of hemlock are also abundant in parts of the UK. Quick google turned up a story about it growing near a school. Obviously parents panicked, which is silly because it grows all over the place. Hemlock water dropwort is the super poisonous one, found all over the place but I doubt most people’d realise. Left is hemlock and right is cow parsley:
Obviously the person holding them is touching the hemlock with bare hands, which is a bad idea.
What is bad about touching it bare handed?
Skin irritation, rash, potentially for toxins to be absorbed through the skin, but especially dangerous if you have a small cut or abrasion you may not have noticed. Touching your eyes or nose after handling is also problematic and an easy mistake to make if you’ve been around plants that easily cause irritation.
All the advice I’ve ever read says don’t touch. Don’t know of a grown adult who’s ever died doing so, but it’s nasty stuff. I googled (duckduckgod?). Eating 6 leaves is enough to kill you, seeds and roots even less.
Here’s a bbc countryfile article. The problem with some of these poisons is that it takes a while before you know you’ve been poisoned and even longer for you to die an unpleasant death.
Luckily it’s not as bad as the organometalics. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Karen Wetterhan. Chemistry professor who dropped one or two drops of dimethylmercury on her protective gloves. Thought nothing of it. Went through her latex glove, absorbed through her skin within 15 seconds, she didn’t notice it happening. Took her 10 months to die of mercury poisoning.
Shit’s no joke. My mother’s a pharmacologist who worked in the industry. She has chronic leukemia now. My father also worked in the chemical industry. He has Parkinson’s now. Environmental exposure is likely to be a factor or have exacerbated things for both of them.
TLDR: wear gloves and protective gear when necessary.