“There is a saying, `There are old mushroom pickers and bold mushroom pickers, but there are no old, bold mushroom pickers`”, says Bruce Ruck, director of drug information and professional education for New Jersey Poison Control, based at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark. Symptoms of mushroom poisoning, which can manifest from as soon as 20 minutes to a few days after consumption, range from intense vomiting, cramps and diarrhea, to liver and kidney damage, to death. “Eating even a few bites of certain mushrooms can cause severe illness”, explains Ruck.
Many popular varieties have toxic look-alikes. “For example, poisonous false morels can be mistaken for highly sought after edible morels and Jack-O'Lantern mushrooms may resemble chanterelles”, says James White, a professor at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “In addition, people have varying degrees of sensitivities with mushrooms. What might be fine for one person to consume might make another sick”.
Ruck urges instructing children not even to touch a wild mushroom. “They could pick one and put it in their mouth before you know it”, he explains – and to safeguard pets by keeping them on a leash and monitoring yards for mushroom growth after rain.
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