[hunson_abadeer]

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.

[petre]

Ah, just wait until another Russian scientist or business person gets hit by lightning.

[gorlilla]

Suicide by lightning twice to the back of the head is on the rise in that part of the world.

[scotty79]

It's like few cases per season per million people eating wild shrooms.

[Kretinsky]

Just 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.

[chongli]

How many millions of people go mushroom hunting?

[rcme]

Probably many millions? It's a pretty popular thing to do in Eastern Europe.

[ben_w]

Given 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]

1%?!

According to the 2014 survey 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]

Wow, OK, I'm surprised by those numbers.

[goodpoint]

Plenty.