You Should Be Concern With Halloween Safety

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You Should Be Concern With Halloween Safety

Thursday, December 11th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

This Halloween, parents will equip their kids with a laundry list of Halloween safety tips. “Be mindful of strangers, only go to houses with a light on, stay together and be home on time,” they’ll say. Then, when the children arrive home, the parents will outstretch their arms and demand, “Now let me see your Halloween candy,” and then they will inspect each and every piece for evidence of tampering. Children never quite understand where these parental fears come from. In fact, many parents aren’t quite sure either. The “Fact or Fiction” themed website snopes.com uncovers some of the urban legends surrounding October 31st and chronicles some of the very real fears as well.

Since the 1970s, Halloween safety has focused on the fear of contaminated candy. In 1970, 5-year-old Kevin Toson died from a heroin overdose. A few days later, officials found that the boy hadn’t eaten heroin-laced candy, as originally believed. Rather, he had accidentally gotten into his uncle’s heroin stash and the family had sprinkled heroin in the boy’s candy afterwards to protect the uncle. Similarly, in 1974, 8-year-old Timothy Mark O’Bryan died from cyanide poisoned Pixie Stix in Houston, Texas. However, upon closer inspection, detectives found that the boy had in fact been poisoned by his own father. Even though these poisonings were far from random, parents still feared for their kids’ safety amid the Halloween fun.

Even though there are many urban legends surrounding Halloween, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that, on average, four children are struck and killed by cars each October 31st, which is four times the fatality rate on any other night. The statistics do not even include accidents that occur in driveways or on sidewalks, so the numbers are suspected to be higher. Experts say kids in dark costumes and vision-obscuring Halloween masks dashing through the streets for delicious Halloween candy is a recipe for disaster. To protect the kids, costumes and candy bags should have bright reflecting tape on them, parents should accompany little ones and older kids should be given the pre-trick-or-treating huddle to discuss serious safety rules. Kids should be told not to run, to stay together at crosswalks and to carry a flashlight.

Last year, the US recalled 440,000 Halloween toys that were contaminated with lead. Among these dangerous items were: Galaxy Warriors figures, plastic disguise teeth, military-style Elite Operations action figures distributed by Toys R Us and Ribbit board games. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the fake teeth were particularly disturbing, with 100 times more lead than what is deemed “safe.” Parents are advised to check labels when buying trick or treat toys and avoid the aforementioned products altogether.

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