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RE: Mary Evelyn's Koffee Klatch
9/26/2013 3:08:17 AM
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Very interesting informtion Helen, too bad your pictures don't show up and neither did your last post. :(
. Quote: Hi everyone
This information below sounds really serious.
I suppose this could be a hoax but I think it is true. Please check
it out and if you find more information about it, please let me know.
If you pass this on, you probably will save someone a lot of misery.
Helen
Could almost mistake this for Queen Anne’s Lace but don’t touch it.. !!
Giant weed that burns and blinds spreads across Canada & USA
A huge, toxic plant that can burn skin and cause permanent blindness has been found for the first
time in eastern Ontario, prompting calls for a federal response to contain the spread of the poisonous plant as fear grows no province is immune. A forestry official confirmed two new findings of giant hogweed last week in Renfrew County , west of Ottawa . It has previously been spotted in Newfoundland , New Brunswick , Quebec , southwestern Ontario , Alberta and British Columbia . About 50 plants were spotted in Toronto's Don Valley two weeks ago.
Contact with the weeds clear, watery sap can be very dangerous, Jeff Muzzi, Renfrew County's
forestry manager and weed inspector. What it does to you is pretty ugly, said Mr. Muzzi. It
causes blisters. Large blisters and permanent scarring. What’s left over looks like a scar from
a chemical burn or fire.
Even a tiny trace of sap applied to the eye can singe the cornea, causing temporary or permanent blindness, he added. The chemicals in the sap, furocoumarins, are carcinogenic and teratogenic, meaning they can cause cancer and birth defects.
Most provinces have not authorized official weed inspectors to destroy the poisonous plant
because it does not impinge on agriculture. Mr. Muzzi said he only began eradicating the
plant because nobody else would. It’s not really my job, he said. I just thought, somebody
better take the bull by the horns here, cause this stuff is really dangerous.
Giant hogweed is already rampant in parts of Europe including England , where the rock
group Genesis wrote a 1971 ode to the plant and its thick dark warning odour. Native to
the Caucasus Region and Central Asia, it was brought to Europe and North America as a
botanical curiosity in the 19th and 20th centuries and has spread rapidly. It typically grows
on riverbanks, ditches and roadsides.
The risk of infection was so high, Mr. Muzzi wore a Tyvek suit, protective goggles, rubber
gloves, the whole nine yards, to remove it, he said. Which is really nice in 35-degree weather.
The weeds sap, which is found all over the plant, bonds chemically with human skin when
exposed to sunlight and, within 48 hours, leads to inflammation, red colouring and itching,
weeping blisters and eventually black and purplish scars. It’s those flower heads you want
to get rid of, Mr. Muzzi said. I went out, suited up, cut all the flowerheads off and bagged
them. Then I nuked the plants with Round-Up. [Wouldn't it make more sense to make a
bonfire of them??? If the hogweed doesn't get you, then the cancer caused by Round-Up
will, is that it?? ...helen. I do admire that he is doing something about it. If we wait until
the government does something, the plant will be growing on our front steps and it will
cost a lot more than everyone doing a small part now.]
Most susceptible to infection are gardeners, campers and children, who have been known
to use the plants large, hollow stems as play telescopes or pea-shooters. If a person takes
a weed-whacker to this stuff, they get the sap all over, Mr. Muzzi said. While the weed is
on the federal governments official noxious weeds list, there is apparently no national or
provincial strategy in place to stop its spread. Guy Baillargeon, a biologist with the
Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility, called the weed an emerging problem, not yet
a national one. Very few people are aware of it right now, he added. I am not aware that
this species is on any provincial list yet.
Mr. Baillargeon said a federal plan is in the works to deal with invasive species in general,
but not hogweed in particular. I believe the plant has been here long enough that it would
now be difficult to eradicate it, Mr. Baillargeon said. So I don’t expect that things will
happen overnight. But we need to talk about it. A 2005 study of the plants spread in
Canada said it was likely to continue for the next 25 to 100 years with worsening ecological,
economic and health effects.
National Post
OTHER PICTURES OF GIANT HOGWEED � IT GROWS ALONG ROADSIDES, DITCHES ETC
Giant Hogweed Leaves Have Jagged Edges As Shown Below
Burns Caused By Giant Hogweed Below
Just a reminder ... If you ever wish to be taken off of my email list,
just let me know and it will be done. ....helen
If this email was passed on to you and if you would like to be on my
list, please let me know by writing to me at >> zhebee@yahoo.com
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