The Dangers Of Pot Plants

[Guest]

I was speaking with my project manager who says she knows of somewhere that was shut down for having potplants where children could reach them and possiby eat soil that may potentially harbour toxic bacteria. I have no other details of the case but find it unlikely because you should be maintaining adequate levels of supervision to make sure children don't eat the soil.

 

A quick google showed little of value - you can buy sterilised soil, but I think that is to protect the plants rather than the humans. Also, how long is is sterile for?

 

If anyone has anything to add I would be very grateful.

[Alison]

it sounds a bit extreme, whats to stop children eating the soil outside?

 

I would imagine there was alot more to the incident than pot plants maybe your project manager has been miss informed (the settimg may not have wanted to tell the whole truth about why they where shut down)

[fay]

I agree with Alison.

Outdoors is far more dangerous but we're all told to spend as much time as possible out there.

I think this could become a health and safety myth if we're not careful.

I've encouraged children to look after pot plants for years and they only gain from caring from them.

Personally I wouldn't worry

Fay

[narnia]

I rather suspect this is one of those 'urban myths' tbh...........................if you read some of the inspection reports on Ofsted's site,some groups get warning after warning after warning for some dreadful lapses, and are STILL allowed to keep running. If pot plants were the problem, they'd have simply been asked to throw them out, surely?? At one of our inspections, we had goldfish in a glass tank, and the inspector advised us to change it to an acrylic tank, as she knew of a case where a child had been turning cartwheels near a galss one, knocked it over, and had cut her leg really badly, resulting in scars for life.She then showed us photographs of the child's leg...................and then told us the child concerned was HERS, so she wnated to warn groups of the danger, but said she couldn't enforce it, as it was down to us to asssess the risk ourselves. (We switched to acrylic!).

[Guest]

Hi, surprisingly there are quite a few highly poisonous pot plants, because a lot of them come from jungle areas. Some also have sap that can burn. I definitely wouldn't have any of these in a nursery setting.

 

BUT ... the soil could not possibly poison anyone, I should imagine the others are right and it is an urban myth.

[JacquieL]

Erm perhaps it was a Pot plant

[Guest]

Sounds completely ridiculous to me, like someone already said they would have simply been asked to remove the plants rather than been shut down. That setting would have been several people's livelihood and as mad as H&S laws can sometimes be I'm sure things haven’t quite got to the point where someone's livelihood is destroyed over throwing out a few plants.

 

An urban myth I would say!

 

 

Erm perhaps it was a Pot plant

 

Oh dear

[Upsy Daisy]

Erm perhaps it was a Pot plant

 

:wacko:

I like your thinking outside the box!

[Alison]

I did wonder about the type of "pot" plant too

[Shiny]

Erm perhaps it was a Pot plant

 

:wacko: :rolleyes:

[JacquieL]

Sorry but the temptation was too much to resist

 

Either the subject of the original post is an 'urban myth' or someone getting the wrong end of the stick.

[Guest]

you can get a bacteria called Clostridium perfringens. This is found in soil and its a reason you should not keep plants in a kitchen, even though most people do. I learnt this at catering collage about 20 years ago.

 

Some pot plants are poisonous, but as long as children are supervised and you know about the pot plant, there should be no reason to keep them in your setting

 

But I think also they're must have been loads of other reasons etc for closing them

[Guest]

Hello greystorm, welcome to the Forum and congratulations on your first post - I'm off to reconsider the herb pots on the kitchen windowsill!

 

Nona

Edited March 5, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

Nooooooooo ! As narnia states, and common sense tells me, this must be one of those health and safety myths... The importance of children having contact with nature far outweigh any potential risk of house plants, soil etc. Surely before bringing pot plants into a setting, one would check their suitability. After children handle soil, they was their hands, simple.

Pleeeeease don't remove living greenery from your settings. Just make carry out risk assessments on them.

 

Children should be amongst beautiful things.

[Guest]

I have plants around and some staff initially questioned whether the children might be poisioned...my answer was not if we don't let them eat them...