Poisonous Mushroom Alert in New Jersey

Wild Mushrooms Make Three New

Jersey Residents Seriously Ill

Mushrooms eaten from their yards

The New Jersey Poison Information and Education System is warning the public to refrain from eating mushrooms they find growing on their lawns or in the wild after three New Jersey residents became seriously ill and were hospitalized after ingesting wild mushrooms.


The three hospitalized individuals are in serious condition, including one who is suffering significant liver damage, after mistaking mushrooms they found growing in their yards as edible ones. Bruce Ruck, Pharm.D., of NJPIES, which is located within the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at UMDNJ –New JerseyMedicalSchool, warns: “Poisonous mushrooms may look similar to non-poisonous ones. There is no easy way to tell the difference between them. They can grow together and may be mistakenly harvested by someone who doesn’t know the difference. Unless you are a mushroom expert, stay clear of them. Do not touch, pick, taste or otherwise use any wild mushrooms.”

Call the New JerseyPoisonControlCenter (1-800-222-1222) immediately if you suspect someone has eaten a poisonous mushroom.  Even after a serious poisoning symptoms may not appear until many hours later.  NJPIES is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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 The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,700 students attending the state’s three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and
Stratford.  UMDNJ operatesUniversityHospital, a Level I Trauma Center inNewark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.

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