Is Halloween Candy Safe?

By Filed under Science and Other News on October 31, 2011 with 7 comments

Amazingly, despite the widespread fear of Halloween poisonings, no evidence of a genuine Halloween poisoning can be located. A professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, Dr. Joel Best, has tried to debunk this myth repeatedly. After scanning major newspapers between 1958 and 1993 for stories about Halloween candy tampering, Dr. Best found nearly 100 stories that he followed up with phone calls to police and hospitals. Of those stories, Dr. Best found absolutely none that could be positively attributed to random Halloween violence. The majority were the result of pranks. The reported incidents usually involved the discovery of contaminated treats, but with no actual injury to the children. When these cases were followed up, even the contamination usually turned out to be a hoax – often one initiated by the children themselves.

Full Aaron Carroll post.

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  1. Buster says:
    October 31, 2011 at 11:49 am

    You have to admit the whole idea of dressing up in scary costumes and going door-to-door after dark extorting candie under implied threat of a trick seems pretty odd.

  2. Simon says:
    October 31, 2011 at 12:28 pm

    That would be an interesting study…the number of tricks vs treats.

  3. Vicki says:
    October 31, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    Timely.

  4. Brian Williams. says:
    October 31, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    In my house, “unsafe” Halloween candy is a hoax perpetrated by parents intent on confiscating candy from their children for personal consumption.

  5. Carolyn Needham says:
    October 31, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    …I think my parents employed the same rules Brian’s house does.

  6. Elizabeth says:
    November 1, 2011 at 9:17 pm

    I think it’s all a plot perpetrated by a pediatric dental union.

  7. Vorgan says:
    June 27, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    uhm strutture pniogolalmente molto semplici e qualche texture un po’ slavata, tuttavia la resa globale sembra abbastanza pulita e, tutto sommato, potrebbe consentire un frame rate stabile a velocit piuttosto elevate. sembra, da qualche video, che ci sar un uso massiccio di blur, il che renderebbe del tutto inutili texture pi dettagliate e strutture particolarmente complesse.sembra anche molto ispirato sotto il profilo artistico.incrociamo le dita e speriamo in un sistema di controllo in grado di divertire e dire qualcosa di nuovo: su wii potrebbe finalmente arrivare il primo nfs degno di essere acquistato da un po’ di anni a questa parte (mi basterebbe anche non fosse noioso e con caricamenti biblici come nfs shift).