Officials warn 'extremely toxic' mushrooms appearing early in Victoria

Health officials are warning Victoria residents to be mindfulof "extremely toxic" mushrooms spotted in the city earlier than usual.

Death cap mushrooms have been spotted in the Uplands and Cedar Hill areas, Island Health said in a statement, adding theycan cause illness or even death if they're ingested.

"The toxin is absolutely destructive to the human liver," Island Healthchief medical health officer Dr. RichardStanwicktold All Points West host Jason D'Souza.

"People present with more severe symptoms within that 12-to-36-hour period ... with signs of jaundice. And as the liver fails, you end up with seizures, comaand, without a liver transplant, the likelihood of demise is quite significant."

If eaten, the mushrooms can be fatal, especially to children and pets. They are responsible for over 90 per cent of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.

The mushrooms usually appear in the fall, Island Health says, but members of the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society spotted them in July this year as they also did in 2017.

Stanwick says it's not known why the mushrooms are appearing earlier but it may be the combination of summer heat and lawn watering that's creating idealconditions for spreading and sprouting.

The first recorded death in B.C. from the mushroom occurred in 2016, when a three-year-old Victoria boy died after eating one.

Island Health offered foragers some tips on avoiding the deadly fungi:

• Don't eat any wild mushrooms unless you know for certain what they are.
• Foragers new to B.C. can confuse the death caps with other, edible types of mushrooms. Death caps resemble puffballs and paddy-straw mushrooms.
• If you believe you may have eaten a death cap, call 911 or the B.C. Drug and Poison Information Centre at 1-800-567-8911. Keep a sample of the mushroom for testing.

Stanwicksays homeowners who find death caps on their property can remove the mushrooms while wearing rubber gloves,double bagging them and disposing of them in the regular garbage not the compost.

Listen to the full interview:

With files from CBC Radio One's All Points West