The unknown danger of toxic floral foam (Oasis)

You’re at a hospital to meet your friend’s newborn for the first time and you want to buy them a special something.

“Everyone loves flowers…” you think.

So you stop in at the hospital florist and there’s an array of pre-made flower arrangements to choose from. Most of them are flowing out of boxes.

You wonder how the flowers survive and stay upright in those boxes.

They’re in that moist green foamy stuff… or “floral foam” — invented and made popular in the fifties by a company called Smithers-Oasis. You buy one for your sick nan or take it to the room of a newborn that has never been exposed to the harsh chemicals of the modern world. Everyone in that room breathes in or potentially touches poison coming from a little box of green foam.

Fifty percent of an Australian floristry course is working with a base medium ie. floral foam, and around 95 percent of current florists use it in their shops or wedding work daily. Sure it saves time and makes the flowers last longer (though not longer than if they were in regular fresh water) but in the long run it’s bad for florists AND consumers.

A year ago there was limited information available and it seemed like no one was even aware of its toxicity. This is because it has been cleverly marketed…