"poison" news and stories

Nicholas Evans, the author of the best-selling novel "The Horse Whisperer" is recovering in a hospital after eating a highly toxic variety of mushroom.

Evans, his wife, her sister and the sister's husband became sick after cooking and eating Cortinarius speciosissimus mushrooms, which they'd gathered in the woods during a vacation in Scotland. The mushrooms contain kidney toxins; all four received dialysis and were reportedly doing well.

Incidents like this shouldn't scare you off mushroom hunting, especially during prime chanterelle season. Just be VERY sure you know exactly what you're doing. Check out Jonathan's 'Chasing the wild mushrooms' features for more on (non-deadly) mushroom hunting.

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When I was growing up, my grandma Bunny liked to go out with friends to gather wild mushrooms. She always swore up and down that she knew exactly what to look for and would never feed her friends and family suspect 'shrooms, but my mother was never convinced. She refused to try them, and would never let my sister or me have a taste either. Bunny disapproved, because she believed that children should always taste everything on the table, but her rules didn't stand a chance in the face of my mom's protective parental instinct.

Keeping this very memorable reaction to these wild mushrooms in mind, I can only imagine what she would say if I suggested to her that I was interested in trying blowfish (I can hear her voice in my head saying very firmly, "Marisa, you are NOT allowed" even as write this). However, my interest in the delicate and sometimes lethal fish has now been piqued, thanks to Gadling's (our sibling site about all things travel) recent three-part series on The Subtle Art of Eating Blowfish (that's the link to part I. Here's part II and part III). I still don't think I'll be trying it any time soon, but it's good to learn a little more about the preparation, as well as the laws that are in place to protect people from its hazards.

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The Indian state of Kerala has initiated a plan to ban Pepsi and Coke for having levels of pesticides above the permissible amount. The whole thing seems to be a campaign against the products, both of which are produced locally using the local water supply. Even Indian commentators are taking note and observing that perhaps the money that the Indian Center for Science and Environment (CSE) intends to spend fighting the cola companies would be better spent running "a campaign for clean water" and reducing the levels of pesticides in all instances.

According to the same source, the CSE's "conclusions were that Diet Pepsi contained 0.36 amounts of pesticide per parts per billion (ppb), as tested by the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata, that Pepsi contained 0.09 and that this was below the limit prescribed for packaged water by the Ministry of Health."

Other sources verify that the levels found in the soft drinks were lower than the levels of pesticide found in tea and other food products, including eggs, apples, rice and milk. So why target Pepsi and Coke? The CSE says that they cannot compare apples - which are reported to have 30200 times the prescribed limit of pesticides, versus 28,040 times the limit in tea and only 24 times the limit for Pepsi - to sodas. But the companies make convenient scapegoats in a country that seems to have pollution issues in areas other than their sodas.

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I know this isn't a landscaping blog, but chocolate is chocolate, and according to the ASPCA, mulch made from cocoa bean shells is both tempting and dangerous for dogs. Like chocolate, hulls used for the mulch contain theobromine which has all sorts of nasty effects-vomiting, elevated heart rate and death-on dogs. What's more, the stuff apparently smells good, which is why landscapers, gardeners and some dogs like it. Cocoa mulch, which sounds more apt for the breakfast table, is actually one most concentrated forms of theobromine available to consumers, according to recent Kansas City Star article. I'm not sure how this news will be taken by gardeners looking to keep their neighbors' dogs out of their rose gardens.

This will hopefully serve as a warning to all of you adventurous eaters out there. Two men were apparently plagued with intense hallucinations and later hospitalized after consuming Salema porgy or Sarpa salpa (right), a highly poisonous reef fish, according to an article in Practical Fishkeeping. The article says the fish was served in restaurants in the western Mediterranean, but does not say exactly where. This 'fish poisoning' or ichthyoallyeinotoxism is generally associated with fish from the Indo Pacific, including certain types of  "mullet, goatfish, tangs, damsels and rabbitfish." The hallucinations, which are supposedly on par with psychedelics like LSD or DMT, have earned these toxic fish the nickname "dream fish."