Sunday, December 24, 2023

BMJ: "The holly and the ivy: a festive platter of plant hazards"

'Tis the season. Silver and gold. First the old.

From The British Medical Journal:

BMJ 2021; 375 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-066995 (Published 15 December 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;375:BMJ-2021-066995 

An unsystematic review, inspired by Christmas culture, examining the potential for harm from consumption or exposure to plants associated with Christmas

Christmas has come again, and while we merrily adorn our hallways, perhaps few of us pause to consider what harm might result from the verdant leaves. Christmas trees have been described as a source of harm,1 and much has been written about mistletoe.2 But which other plants are on the naughty list? We decided to investigate (box 1)—our work comes with a hazard warning that it is far from systematic, nor is it a definitive guide to instances of poisonings or their management....

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/375/bmj-2021-066995/F1.medium.jpg

(click to enlarge

....MUCH MORE

And related:
Ghost in the machine or monkey with a typewriter—generating titles for Christmas research articles in The BMJ using artificial intelligence: observational study

Additional infographics at the BMJ:

A cautionary tale: Presenting new data on head injuries in nursery rhymes

BOGUS 2020: Biased Outcomes Reporting Guidelines for Underwhelming Studies

....MUCH MORE

And fast forwarding to the 2023 edition