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Like many other pet lovers, we have kept beautiful poinsettias out of our house at Christmas time.  Our parents, grandparents, and other wise, elder folk told us that the plants were POISONOUS.  We would pass a poinsettia and I would say, “That would look so wonderful in my living room.”  But, we have Shammy, the plant eating cat.  So, we went without them. 

Recently, we began hearing that the story was myth, that poinsettias were actually not dangerous to kids, puppies and kitties.  We ignored the murmurs.  We continued to avoid them. 

Then, Sue and Dawn, our neighbors, gave us a gift…a poinsettia…and then, we turned to GOOGLE (what else?).  In fact, we turned to GOOGLE’s rarely used SCHOLAR product: 

An Abstract from the The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Volume 14, Issue 7, Pages 671-674 

The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a much-maligned plant which is thought by the public and some health professionals to be extremely toxic. Despite pronouncements by public health officials to the contrary, the poinsettia continues to be recognized as a poisonous plant. To determine if there was any validity to the toxicity claims, 849,575 plant exposures reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers were electronically analyzed. Poinsettia exposures accounted for 22,793 cases and formed the subset that was analyzed to critically evaluate the morbidity and mortality associated with poinsettia exposures. There were no fatalities among all poinsettia exposures and 98.9% were accidental in nature, with 93.3% involving children. The majority of exposed patients (96.1%) were not treated in a health care facility and 92.4% did not develop any toxicity related to their exposure to the poinsettia. Most patients do not require any type of therapy and can be treated without referral to a health care facility. 

Similarly, Carnegie Melon and Pittsburgh’s Children’s hospital conducted a similar data analysis, a study of almost 23,000 poinsettia exposures reported to poison control centers.  DRUM ROLL…no evidence of actual toxicity! 

Other studies have involved more in depth analysis of all the parts of the plants…and they found…NO EVIDENCE OF TOXICITY! 

So, where did the myth start?  APPARENTLY, RIGHT HERE IN HAWAII!!!  A child who died here in 1918 was believed to have eaten a poinsettia. 

So, with Poison Control Centers across the nation deeming the plant safe to be around the house, our reluctance and fear is gone.  Thanks to scientific studies, we, Pet Lovers and Pet Parents, need no longer to exclude poinsettias from our holiday decor.