Toxic gifts

600 pesticides found on 16 bouquets of flowers

Flowers are a popular gift for loved ones, but they are often laced with a veritable cocktail of pesticides.(Bild: Jöchl Martin)

Mother's Day is next Sunday! Traditionally, bouquets of flowers are given as gifts on this occasion. However, behind the beautiful appearance there is often a real poison bomb: The Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor warns of dangerous environmental toxins with which the colorful plants are often contaminated.

A bouquet of flowers is not only a popular gift for Mother's Day next Sunday. Even those who have a guilty conscience like to reach for flowers as compensation. However, the Chamber of Labor is now warning against carelessly buying flowers based on their appearance alone.

Lax rules
Cut flowers usually come from countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Ecuador. And there, of course, the European regulations do not apply. The workers on the flower farms often have to handle the toxic substances - some of which are even banned in the EU - without any protection.

Only one "clean"
Just in time for Mother's Day, the consumer advocates and the environmental protection organization GLOBAL 2000 examined a total of 16 bouquets. Only one bouquet of tulips from Austria stood out positively, with only one single pesticide substance detected. The others resembled a pesticide cocktail.

Two thirds contaminated
Two thirds of the bouquets tested were found to contain 14 or more insecticide active ingredients - a total of over 600 different "horrors". Even bouquets with the Fairtrade label were anything but clean.

Picking your own recommended
A tip from the experts: "Pick your own flowers: a colorful meadow bouquet from your own garden comes from the heart and does not harm workers or the environment."

You can find the exact result at:

ooe.arbeiterkammer.at