5 ms·
It is not common at all. You have maybe several people dying every year, which is in the "hit by lightning" territory. It's very well-publicized whenever it hap
by hunson_abadeer 3y ago
It is not common at all. You have maybe several people dying every year, which is in the "hit by lightning" territory. It's very well-publicized whenever it happens, which probably helps keep the numbers low. But this is a very unusual way to die.
- scotty79 3y agoIt's like few cases per season per million people eating wild shrooms.
- chongli 3y agoHow many millions of people go mushroom hunting?
- goodpoint 3y agoPlenty.
- ben_w 3y agoGiven approximately everyone's heard of it, and warnings about it, but also that I don't personally know anyone who tells me that they personally do this, my guess is in the order of 1% of the population. Might be more, might be less. 1% of Russia would be 1.5 million (and given this thread, 412k for Ukraine).
- demetrius 3y ago1%?! According to the 2014 survey https://fom.ru/Obraz-zhizni/11711 https://fom.ru/Obraz-zhizni/11711 , 75% Russians have ever went to pick up mushrooms, and 40% have done it in the last year before the survey. 8% personally know people who suffered from mushroom poisoning. This corresponds to my expectations: I'm from a neighbouring country, Belarus, and basically almost everyone around me has been picking up mushrooms. That's not just a culinary experience, but a way to relax: go to forest, disconnect from the world, unwind. (People also pick up blueberries and lingonberries for the same reasons.) Oh, and my classmate died from mushroom poisoning.
- ben_w 3y agoWow, OK, I'm surprised by those numbers.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rcme 3y agoProbably many millions? It's a pretty popular thing to do in Eastern Europe.
- pengaru 3y ago[flagged]
- Kretinsky 3y agoJust like for road accidents, death is a wrong measure, as it really depends on your health, i.e a 20 years forager will survive whereas an 80 years old one would die. Many mushrooms are liver-toxic, so if you already have hepatitis (very common in Russia), you're probably more prone to die from a poisonous one. Intoxication leading to hospitalization is a better measure.
- petre 3y agoAh, just wait until another Russian scientist or business person gets hit by lightning.
- gorlilla 3y agoSuicide by lightning twice to the back of the head is on the rise in that part of the world.