Group sickened by toxic mushrooms in York County now out of hospital

Oct 15, 2024

Nearly a dozen people sickened by eating wild mushrooms in Peach Bottom Township are out of the hospital.

The group of 11 adults and children were all taken to WellSpan York Hospital on Friday night after emergency personnel responded to the situation in the 200 block of Burke Road.

They were all released early Saturday morning after receiving treatment at the hospital, WellSpan spokesperson Ryan Coyle said.

He couldn’t provide further information.

Personnel with Delta-Cardiff Volunteer Fire Co. Station 57 responded to a call about what they described as a “mass casualty” incident around 9:30 p.m. Friday.

With 11 people ill from ingesting the mushrooms, more responders from elsewhere in York County, as well as Lancaster County and Harford County, Maryland, were called in to assist, according to the fire company’s Facebook post.

Various species of both edible and toxic mushrooms grow in Pennsylvania, online resources show.

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Mushroom foraging and enthusiasm appears common in Pennsylvania. Growing and sourcing mushrooms is also big business in the state.

The Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation noted in an article last year that the state has the largest number of mushroom farms in the country, with about two-thirds of the country’s mushrooms coming from Kennett Square borough in Chester County.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture found last year Pennsylvania farmed organic mushrooms on 9.6 million square feet of production area in 2021, accounting for 61% of organic mushroom land area in the country.

The state saw land dedicated to such farming had more than doubled from 2019, according to the article.

For those who forage mushrooms, the North American Mycological Association provides a free volunteer service, including contacts in Pennsylvania, to help identify mushrooms in poisoning cases or suspected poisonings.

Doctors or local poison centers should be contacted immediately in the event of a poisoning, the organization advises.

Mushroom clubs, of which the state has several, nature centers, museums or higher education botany departments can also be consulted for nonemergency toxic mushroom identifications.

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— Aimee Ambrose can be reached at [email protected].