My main question is truly, how worried should I be handling euphorbias. I've had various euphorbia for years. Now I know the sap is toxic and can cause blindness and I tend towards the side of paranoia but I dont want to get rid of all my plants. I have quite a few varieties such as this E. aeruginosa. I really like collecting cacti and similar.
I'm also really careless and clumsy. Realistically, I won't wear goggles or gloves when handling, separating, repotting my plants. I do typically wash my hands after handling plants, but will also wipe my face with like my wrist when its hot to remove sweat.
So, how worried should I realistically be? I've gotten myself in a spiral but dont want to get rid of some of my favorite plants.
by sunken_starlight
8 Comments
And, similar dumb question. More concerns when getting poked with spines? Other than obviously being poked?
Just be careful. Avoid cutting or trimming Euphorbia when you have open cuts on your fingers / hands or wear gloves in those cases. Avoid getting the latex in your eyes, if you’re worried when trimming then use some eye protection, but that’s not usually necessary for normal sized container plants. Don’t go around eating stems or licking your hands after handling euphorbia sap. Wash your hands.
Also it’s a bit of misinformation related to how toxic or caustic Euphorbia sap as if they are universally going to burn your hand off, which isn’t the case. Some are worse than others, handle them as safe as you can when repotting or trimming.
In hindsight I have never done anything different and I have a few different species and couple of some of them. Maybe I’m not being cautious enough.
I generally handle all euphorbia with cheap leather gloves if I think I’ll break spines/leak sap just to be safe. Unless you’re rubbing sap in your eyes and mouth or letting it sit on your skin you won’t have issues, but the gloves help in case you forget 😁
Compre unos guantes y no lo uso jjj
I just wash my hands i have loads of euphorbs
I’m lucky enough to be friends with growers who have grown Euphorbia commercially for decades without issues, they generally do not wear any PPE. I would be more afraid for their exposure to sun and pumice/ perlite dust and pesticides tbh. Generally just wash your hands and be careful and don’t let the sap sit on your bare skin. If you get sap on yourself, wash it off, or be mindful if you notice that some species affect you worse than others. Just grip smaller spiny plants from the base or handle larger ones with metal tongs or newspaper if you’re concerned.
There are people in the comments here both too worried and not worried enough. *Euphorbia* aren’t just irritating to your skin (or capable of damaging your eyes if you’re really stupid/unlucky). As [this study discusses](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574526/), contact symptoms are generally not that significant, except in children, anybody dumb enough to ingest the latex, or the aforemention ocular exposure.
Just use gloves so you don’t get their latex on your bare skin and wash your hands if you do.
With respect to one of your follow-up comments, getting poked by spines isn’t any more worrying that getting poked by the spines of other plants—i.e. you should care about the physical damage done by something pointy. They’re not injecting poison into you or anything, and the skin of the plant is not particularly poisononous at all.
Euphorbia are poisonous and toxic, but as the saying goes, “the dose makes the poison.”
The real danger of long-term *Euphorbia* growing is that they are carcinogenic, as mentioned [here](https://www.echocommunity.org/resources/3060a8f2-5a1b-4e42-bb84-7fbb2311d260) and [here](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9619738/). Then again, are you eating goats that fed on your Euphorbia? Are you planting them next to your tomatoes?
If so… uh don’t do that? That’s a bad idea.
Otherwise, wear gloves, wash your hands (and anywhere else that gets direct exposure) with soap, and don’t worry about it.
You’d be better off making sure you’re wearing sunscreen everyday to prevent melanoma than ridding yourself of your Euphorbiaceae.