More than 100 calls were made to the National Poisons Information Centre (NPIC) over suspected mushroom poisoning during the past two years.
There were 45 calls relating to 40 cases made in 2024 and 57 calls relating to 51 cases in 2023.
Half of the 51 cases in 2023 were asymptomatic when the NPIC was contacted. Of those who showed symptoms, they had repeated vomiting, diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal pain and fever.
A spokesperson for the NPIC at Beaumont Hospital said autumn is the most common period for mushroom calls, with a “peak” occurring in October.
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The world’s most toxic mushrooms, amanita phalloides, have been in the news recently.
On Monday, an Australian woman was found guilty of murdering three of her estranged husband’s relatives by deliberately serving them the poisonous mushrooms for lunch.
In 2023, Erin Patterson served her husband’s family beef wellingtons that were later found to have contained amanita phalloides, commonly known as death cap mushrooms. These can cause kidney and liver failure hours after consumption.
[ Death cap mushrooms: Are they in Ireland and how do you spot them?Opens in new window ]
Bill O’Dea, who studied fungi at University College Dublin and now runs wild mushrooms “hunts” in Ireland, said death cap mushrooms are fairly common across the country, with “loads around Wicklow”.
He noted they typically have white gills, which are the thin structures on the underside of the mushroom’s cap. They also have a white stem with a ring on it.
“There are thousands of mushrooms in Ireland – up to 15,000. Of those, there [are] probably 50 that are poisonous, but of those probably eight of them are deadly,” he said.
[ Death cap mushrooms: Are they in Ireland and how do you spot them?Opens in new window ]
Other toxic mushrooms in Ireland include the destroying angel, the deadly webcap and the false morel, he said.
The NPIC said it is “easy to confuse edible and toxic mushroom species”, while getting a mushroom’s identification wrong “can have serious health consequences”.
The NPIC take calls from members of the public from 8am to 7pm each day.
