When Proof Doesn’t Matter

For those of you who don’t know or haven’t met me yet, I’m a database consultant by trade, and that brings me into contact with many people, with all different types of cultural backgrounds. I was sharing an office at the time with “J” a gentleman from Thailand, and another gentleman, “E” from Indonesia. It was around the holiday season and the company had purchased several dozen Poinsettia plants and sprinked them liberally around the building. It would also have been nice if they had chosen to water them, but I digress…

One of my office-mates, J, decided to take matters into his own hands, and brought four or five of the plants into our own little office space. I find Poinsettias to be attractive and welcomed the change, as did E. No-one else said anything about the foliage relocation project, so for a week or so, J happily watered and tended to the plants as needed, between development tasks. Later that month, an email went out stating that anyone who wanted to could take the plants home to enjoy. J took two. Neither I nor E took any.

A couple of days later, “M”, another co-worker of ours came in and asked if he could have one of the plants. I deferred to J, who seemed to be in charge of the operation, and he said it was fine, with one caveat… “Do you have a cat at home? Or kids?”, J asked. “Yeah, I have two sons, and a dog.”, M replied. “Oh, you might not want to take these, then.”, said J. “They’re poison.” “No, they’re not.”, I interjected without glancing up from my monitor. The roar of silence which followed allowed me to better feel the three pairs of eyes boring into the back of my head.

I let them stare for a second and turned around. “It’s already been demonstrated in lab tests, and by stats from the Poison Control Centers that Poinsettia plants are not toxic.”, I said. “Unless you’ve already got some kind of allergy to plants to begin with, Poinsettias are safe.”

“Oh, no…”, said E. “I had a cat once that died from eating a Poinsettia. I took it to the vet, and he said that that is what killed it.”

“Yeah, come on, Dave. Everyone knows these things are poison.”, said M.

“Really…”, I said, and turned back around to my monitor. A couple of quick searches later, I found the Snopes page on the topic and a specific research article on TOXNET that stated categorically that Poinsettias were NOT toxic. Reading them aloud, I was met with a stray “Hm.” or “Well…”, and mostly silence. M took his plant and walked away. J, E and I went back to our code.

Towards the end of the day, another co-worker inquired about taking one of the plants. J said, “Sure, go ahead. But make sure you keep them away from your kids or pets. They’re poison, you know.”

Poinsettias are not poisonous. But a CRT monitor will leave a nice red mark on your forehead if you hit it hard enough. I have proof. But what I didn’t have was anything near good enough to counter what was surely a few decade’s worth of belief. Perry DeAngelis once defined a belief that persists despite overwheming evidence as a delusion. While I’d be hard pressed to describe either of my office mates as delusional, I did wonder what kind of evidence it would take to convince them that the plants were not poisonous.

I’ve also read in several places that while not poisonous, the plant is extremely bitter. I think the next time I hear someone mention that a Poinsettia is poisonous, I’ll down a couple leaves to prove them wrong. Any suggestions for a chaser would be appreciated.

Thanks.

-D.