Pete Evans may spruik them but eating essential oils is dangerous

They may be marketed as ‘natural’ but essential oil poisonings are rising each year and the trend to add them to food, as celebrity chef Pete Evans has spruiked, has health authorities worried.

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They may be “natural” and “derived from plants” but poisoning by essential oils is rising each year — and a new trend to add them to food has health experts alarmed.

The popularity of essential oils has led to about four accidental poisonings a day in NSW so far this year.

In the seven months to the end of July 2020, there has been a total of 819 calls to the NSW Poisons Information Centre (PIC) regarding essential oil poisoning — with one in 10 resulting in hospitalisation.

Senior pharmacist Genevieve Adamo from the PIC said there had been 272 exposures to eucalyptus oil, 420 exposures to other essential oils and 127 exposures to tea tree oil.

The NSW Poisons Information Centre said essential oils need to be kept away from children.

“All essential oils can be toxic, some are worse than others,” Ms Adamo said.

“Eucalyptus oil has been shown to be quite dangerous but there is potential for harm with all essential oils.

“We see a spike in calls over winter and we often get calls from people who have mistaken it for cough mixture and they will have swig from a bottle. Eucalyptus oil is quite dangerous. Relatively small quantities like 5ml in a child can cause serious poisoning and there is potential for seizures.

“We need to make sure people are storing it safely, separate from medicines and understand it is a poison.

“People think because it’s natural, therefore it is safe.”

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Ms Adamo said it was concerning that people had begun to add essential oils to food, as controversial chef Pete Evans has done in his online recipes. Mr Evans has partnered with multi-level marketed essential oil product doTerra, which also publicises recipes using essential oils.

“We would not encourage that at all because it is not designed for that,” she said.

“Putting the herb in food is how it is meant to be consumed. The pure oil has been extracted separately and concentrated, so the potential for risk and accidentally putting in too much is greater,” Ms Adamo said.

Chef Pete Evans has added essential oils to online recipes. Picture: Instagram

Dietitian Mandy-Lee Noble said the increased use of essential oils indicated a need for more public education.

“Oral use of essential oils can cause severe toxicity leading to the rapid onset of symptoms such as vomiting, difficulties breathing and loss of consciousness, particularly in children,” she said.

‘More than half of essential oils exposures occurred in children and a small subset of calls were found to be people taking essential oils orally for perceived health benefits.

“Pete Evans encouraging followers to use essential oils in recipes further increases the risk of toxicity.

“Home cooks may be tempted to add more of the essential oils to increase the supposed benefits while individual exposure would vary depending on how much was eaten. Just because something is derived from a plant does not make it safe for use internally or externally by humans,” Ms Noble said.

Essential oils may smell nice, but they should not be ingested.

Pete Evans is spruiking essential oil use in recipes and experts say it’s a bad mix.

A recent study conducted by Sydney University looking at essential oil poisonings from July 2014 to June 2018 found the incidence of essential oil poisonings has increased year on year.

There were 4412 essential oil exposures reported to NSWPIC during the study period with one-third experiencing symptoms of poisoning at the time of the call.

The number of calls increased from 1011 in 2014–15 to 1177 in 2017–2018, a 16.4 per cent increase.

The researchers found the essential oils most frequently involved in poisonings were eucalyptus, tea tree, lavender, clove and peppermint.

Originally published as Pete Evans may spruik them but eating essential oils is dangerous