<
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1208459235/why-urban-legend-contaminated-halloween-candy-wont-disappear-razor-blade-poison>
'Halloween is one of the most dangerous holidays of the year for kids. It has
more child pedestrian deaths than any other day of the year. Kids also get
tangled in their costumes and injure themselves. But there's something that
isn't a real problem: strangers giving trick-or-treaters apples with razor
blades, poisoned candy or drugs.
For decades, Halloween-safety public service announcements and police officers
have advised parents to inspect their children's candy before letting them eat
it. Generations of kids have been told bad people want to hurt them by
tampering with their Halloween candy.
"This is absolutely a legend," said Joel Best, a professor of sociology and
criminal justice at the University of Delaware, who has studied contaminated
candy since the 1980s. "It's not a particularly great legend ... but it lives
on."
When Best was in graduate school in the late 1960s, the fear of tainted candy
was already a widespread concern. There were also moments when that fear
spiked, like after the Tylenol killings in 1982. Seven people died after being
poisoned by painkillers laced with cyanide. This led to speculation that
Halloween candy would be dangerous that year. But there was no wave of
Halloween poisonings.
The topic would come up with Best's students and friends. They were outraged
that he didn't think the candy danger was real. So he started digging through
newspapers, searching for cases of it happening.
"I have data going back to 1958, and I have yet to find a report of a child
that's been killed or seriously hurt by a contaminated treat picked up in the
course of trick-or-treating," said Best.'
Via Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
