“Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something lethal to eat!”
That’s not the actual rhyme, but from all the warnings about Halloween you just might think it was. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics is still insisting that “a responsible adult should closely examine all treats.”
But why? How many decades of disproving this murderous myth do America’s doctors require before they lay it to rest? Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, first put a stake through the poison candy rumor all the way back in 1985, when he did a study of newspapers dating back to 1958, looking for “Child poisoned by Halloween candy” news stories.
This sentence from the piece says it all: “Your kids are more likely to end up *on* the registry than to be molested *by* someone on it.”
Great article, thanks for sharing. I plan to post to the comments section of that Patch article regarding their annual posting of RC maps.
A side note, and at the risk of seeming like an over-protective dad, I do still inspect my kid’s candy, but it’s a rouse to confiscate the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Peanut M & Ms for myself. (Hey, my son is allergic, so I help him avoid a poke with the Epi-pen by selflessly absorbing those candies myself.)
This morning on Channel 4, KRON San Francisco, There was a public announcement that parents need to look up where “sexual predators” live before Halloween. The Sheriff in the ad claims a child will be dragged into the house of a registered sex offender.
I am not surprised the announcement originated from KRON. Their programming is spun toward public fear. But to make a claim by law enforcement that is statistically wrong is really wrong.