Fwd: Halloween candy scare - debunking paranoia

[Guest guest]

While sugar is by no means a healthy food, paranoia over the

possibility of poisoned candy is, imo, far more dangerous.

 

Alobar

 

 

 

 

 

 

" It's a time-honored Halloween ritual: children getting dressed up as

scary creatures and

trick-or-treating. It's all harmless fun, except for the part where

parents feel they must protect

their children from sinister strangers.

 

" Each year, police and medical centers across the country follow

another ritual, X-raying candy to

check for razors, needles, or other objects that might have been

placed there to hurt or kill

innocent children. Special events are held that offer kids 'a safe

Halloween,' suggesting that there

are real lurking dangers far worse than spooky costumes.

 

" Yet year after year, few if any sinister foreign objects are found.

This scary tale is essentially

an urban legend.

 

" Despite e-mail warnings, scary stories, and Ann Landers columns to

the contrary, there have been

only two confirmed cases of children being killed by poisoned

Halloween candy, and in both cases the

children were killed not in a random act by strangers but intentional

murder by one of their

parents. The best-known, 'original' case was that of Texan Ronald

Clark O'Bryan, who killed his son

by lacing his Pixie Stix with cyanide in 1974.

 

" There have been a few instances of candy tampering over the years—and

in most cases the 'victim'

turned out to be the culprit, children doing it as a prank or to draw

attention. With the exceptions

noted above, no child has been killed or seriously harmed by

contaminated Halloween candy. "

 

Full story at:

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/051025_halloween_candy.html