Mushroom poisoning 2014 tops everything

Tasty and dangerous: number of mushroom poisonings increases

09/15/2014

Due to the weather, Germany's forests are a real paradise for mushroom pickers this year. The problem is that more and more toxic specimens are collected and consumed. The number of mushroom poisonings is increasing. Therefore, experts advise to have the collected mushrooms inspected by experts.

Rising number of mushroom poisonings
Even if the mushrooms flourish again this year, caution is advised. Because what looks so tasty and harmless in the forest and in the meadows can be poisonous and harmful to your health. Many people in this country had to experience this themselves this year: the number of fungal poisonings is increasing. „2014 tops everything, we have never had so many calls in recent years“, explained about Dagmar Eckart of the poison emergency call center in Mainz, which is responsible for Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse, to the news agency dpa. Already "more than 300 cases have been registered this year so far, which is more than twice as many as in the same period of previous years".

Early start of the mushroom season this year
Also Peter Karasch from the German Society of Mycology (DGfM) in Berlin confirmed: „The tendency is rising.“ He does not find that surprising either: „That's also logical: the more mushrooms there are, the higher the risk of poisoning.“ Although there were many mushrooms, chanterelles, porcini mushrooms & Co. last year, but only at the end of the season. In many areas, the mushroom search was worthwhile in June because of the wet summer. Only about every ten to fifteen years does such an early start occur.

Fear of radioactively contaminated fungi fades
Yet another reason for the increase sees the health insurance DAK in Hamburg, which had already reported last year about a significant increase in severe fungal poisoning. As the DAK doctor Elisabeth Thomas explained: „Especially in southern Germany, many people were afraid for a long time that fungi could be radioactively contaminated - an after-effect of the Chernobyl disaster.“ After the meltdown in the Ukrainian nuclear power plant 28 years ago, this country has also been warned to some extent of radioactively contaminated food. But these worries are slowly disappearing.

Yearning for nature
The mushroom expert Thomas Lehr from the Hessian Hofheim also suspects "an increasing yearning for nature" as another reason for the desire to collect mushrooms. The expert offers about training walks, the number of participants is steadily increasing. In addition, more and more mushroom seekers have their yield carefully checked by a specialist. According to him, teaching is rarely poisonous. In the hundreds of baskets he examined, poisonous tuber-leaved mushrooms had been present for the first time. „But I know from colleagues that they often have something toxic.“

Many harmless mushrooms have poisonous doppelgangers
Mushroom seekers are advised to have their findings inspected by experts before placing them in the pan. In Germany, there are several thousand types of fungi, of which around 200 are poisonous. Many of the delicious mushrooms have poisonous doppelgangers. For example, the widespread tuberous toadstool, with its highly toxic leeches, looks confusingly similar to the harmless champignon. Most of the fatal mushroom intoxications in Central Europe are due to this fungus.

If there is a suspicion of fungus poisoning call the emergency doctor
The DGfM has published a list of experts on its homepage, these usually work free of charge or for a small fee. If you experience symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting or acute abdominal pain after eating a mushroom meal, you are likely to be poisoned by fungus. In this case, the emergency doctor (112) should be called immediately or the poison emergency call of the state concerned should be contacted. Physicians warn against taking medications on their own. Those affected should drink plenty of water and ideally take mushroom leftovers for medical treatment. (Ad)