In order to effectively prevent poisoning of poisonous mushrooms, on May 17, Hunan issued the "Guidelines for the Comprehensive Prevention and Control of The Risk Grading of Wild Mushroom Poisoning in Hunan Province (2021 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines"), which is the first in China.
Based on the number of cases, deaths, and occurrence sites of accidentally eating poisonous wild mushrooms in various counties and urban areas from 2016 to 2020, 9 counties (cities, districts) including Changsha County, Xiangtan County, Qidong County, Qiyang City, Lingling District, Dao County, Xinning County, Fenghuang County, and Xinhuang Dong Autonomous County were listed as high-risk areas for wild mushroom poisoning.
According to the risk level, the "Guidelines" put forward comprehensive prevention and control measures in a targeted manner, guide localities to effectively prevent, and strive to minimize the risk of mushroom poisoning, reduce the occurrence of poisoning, and reduce the case fatality rate. It is reported that the Provincial Food Safety Office, the Provincial Health Commission, and the Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention will dynamically adjust the risk level in a timely and dynamic manner according to the number of poisoning incidents or the number of cases, the number of deaths, the place of poisoning and other factors every year.
01. Why are there the most mushroom poisoning incidents in Changzhutan and Yongzhou?
Sitting in the office of Professor Chen Zuohong, director of the Fungal Research Office of the College of Life Sciences of Hunan Normal University, in the office of two and a half miles, the smell of dried mushrooms is smelling. A pair of shoes are placed under the window, and the packaged dryer will be sent to Badagong Mountain in Sangzhi County for the drying of mushroom specimens.
Chen Zuohong, who has just returned from Yunnan, is about to rush to Zhangjiajie to do a local resource survey of fungi. Chen Zuohong said that he has been studying fungi for 26 years, and his main research direction when he was a master's degree was edible mushrooms, and since he came into contact with a case of poisonous mushroom consumption death in Changsha County many years ago, he has set his sights on poisonous mushrooms.
Chen Zuohong said that June to September is the busiest time, dealing with more than a dozen poisoning cases of poisonous mushroom poisoning in a day.
In Hunan, the reason why there are so many highly toxic Amanita poisoning incidents is because such mushrooms grow widely and are widely distributed. They like to grow under the mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest, living with trees, not necessarily growing in deep mountain forests, and even some schools and governments can find these mushrooms under the cedar landscape forest. Chen Zuohong said that he once received a case of poisonous mushrooms in Shanghai, where there were mushrooms growing in the green plains of a university, which were picked and eaten by mistake and caused death, which shows that these amanita mushrooms are not far away from us.
What is puzzling is that since the Office of the Hunan Provincial Food Safety Commission launched the foodborne disease investigation in 2013, from 2013 to 2015, the areas of poisoning incidents provided were the most mushroom poisoning incidents in the Changzhutan area and relatively developed areas such as Shaoyang and Yongzhou.
I have asked whether the population density of the two regions is relatively large. Why is the Western Hunan region, which is deep in the hinterland of Wuling Mountain, not a key area?
"You may not believe that the people in Changzhutan and Shaoyang and Yongzhou areas dare to eat any fungus," Chen Zuohong smiled bitterly, and the areas where poisoning incidents are frequent are related to the eating habits of this place.
Although the forest coverage rate in western Hunan is high and there are many types of mushrooms, the local people only eat fir mushrooms (also known as cold mushrooms), and other mushrooms do not eat. But when it comes to Changzhutan, especially the elderly in the Ningxiang area, they like to eat mushrooms and trust their decades of experience and judgment. Often poisoned are around 60 years old people, too blind and confident, Chen Zuohong complained.
Some poisonous mushrooms are similar to edible mushrooms, and sometimes experts who study fungi may be confused.
For example, Amanita angustifolia can be eaten, and Amanita grey pattern is highly toxic, but the two look very similar. Black fungus is the most common edible fungus, but the poisonous leafy ear fungus looks very similar to black fungus, and ordinary people can't tell the difference. The list goes on and on.
There is also a poisonous mushroom called the strip cover helmet spore umbrella, which likes to grow in sawdust, and this mushroom often grows in the sawdust stacked in some wood processing plants, if you encounter workers who like to eat mushrooms, it is likely to be picked and eaten casually, and once you eat it, you will be poisoned.
There are many misconceptions about poisonous mushrooms, and their figure is not far away. Some seemingly inconceivable poisoning incidents are caused by the person's paralysis or luck.
"Our poisonous mushroom propaganda is not in place yet," Chen Zuohong lamented. Some places have deep-rooted eating habits, and some old ideas such as the judgment of using garlic to cook together to see the color change are useless. For people who love mushrooms, Chen Zuohong advises them not to eat mushrooms they don't know. Once poisoning is found, it should be transferred to a major hospital for treatment as soon as possible.
At present, food must resist temptation, let alone a poisonous mushroom that is deadly enough?
For more information, see Xiaoxiang Morning News once reported "Forward Collection! For more than 20 years, it has caused more than 400 people to be poisoned and more than 100 people to die, and the number one killer of mushrooms in Hunan has been like this."
02、What are the common poisonous mushrooms?
Poisonous mushrooms are very toxic, acute in incidence and have a high mortality rate. In Changsha, the main types of symptoms of poisonous mushroom poisoning can be divided into five categories, namely: (1) acute liver damage type, (2) acute renal failure type, (3) gastroenteritis type, (4) neuropsychiatric type, and (5) rhabdomyolysis type. Common poisonous mushrooms have the following, let's polish your eyes and get to know them together!
1. Split skin amanita and gray pattern amanita
Because one black and one white is called the "black and white double brake" of the "mushroom world".
2. Euclidean Amanita
It is a highly toxic killer that specializes in attacking the kidneys
3. Big green fold umbrella
The most common poisonous mushroom that causes the most toxic events can cause severe gastrointestinal symptoms.
4. Japanese red mushrooms
Can lead to severe gastroenteritis-type poisoning.
5. Poison fly Amanita
Severe poisoning can even lead to death.
6. Sub-thin folded red mushroom
In recent years, the sub-rare fold red mushroom has caused dozens of deaths in China, and the case fatality rate has even exceeded 50%.
03, poisonous mushrooms to understand the five major misunderstandings
Myth 1: Brightly colored mushrooms are poisonous, and mushrooms with ordinary colors are not poisonous. In fact, some highly poisonous mushrooms, such as gray pattern amanita and sub-thin folded red mushrooms, are gray, and the deadly amanita and split skin amanita are pure white.
Myth 2: Mushrooms are boiled with garlic, rice, silverware, porcelain pieces, etc., and the color becomes black and poisonous, and it is non-toxic if it does not change color. This statement is also wrong, some of China's highly poisonous mushrooms are cooked with garlic and rice, and the color of garlic and rice does not turn black.
Myth 3: Raw insects, maggots of mushrooms are not poisonous. Many insects and animals absorb toxins differently from humans. After the highly toxic Amanita fungus matures and rots, it is easy to give birth to insects and maggots. Even if the highly toxic Amanita bacteria are fed to mice orally, the mice will not die.
Myth 4: Mushrooms that are discolored or have secretions are poisonous. Discoloration or milk outflow is a feature of many families such as Porciniidae and Red Mushrooms; in fact, many species of Porciniaceae and Red Mushrooms are edible. Therefore, it is not possible to judge whether a mushroom is poisonous based on the discoloration of the injury or the presence of secretions.
Myth 5: Mushrooms that grow in wet places or on livestock feces are poisonous, and mushrooms that grow in clean places such as under pine trees are non-toxic. The toxicity and non-toxicity of mushrooms has nothing to do with the environment in which they grow, because poisonous mushrooms are the same as the environment in which other mushrooms grow.
Source: Xiaoxiang Morning News Synthesis
Reporters Li Shu and Qian Ye