Thursday, 28 July 2011

Daily Mail Repeats ragwort myth

Today's Daily Mail carries a scare story about hemlock. It is deadly and is "invading" our roadsides. Well not quite. Yes it is really poisonous. On of the most poisonous around but it isn't invading anywhere. It has always been there.
Perhaps being the Daily Mail they think it is an asylum seeker. :-)

Rather predictably, as often happens with Ragwort they have a photo of Hemlock Water Dropwort on the article another poisonous plant

However it goes on to repeat a myth about ragwort.

Ragwort, another deadly weed for humans and animals, has been on the rise in recent years.


There is no serious risk to people from Ragwort as you would have to eat it in some quantity to be poisoned .It is nowhere near in the same league as hemlock!
Also it is NOT increasing. This is a regular claim from the anti-ragwort brigade but there is no evidence to support it and good evidence to say it is decreasing.
Ragwort Hysteria latest entries

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