What should parents really be worried about this Halloween? Not razors in candy.
As Halloween approaches, tips often circulate advising parents to check their children's Halloween candy, not for a tasty caramel center, but for potentially unsafe objects — like razor blades.
But this year, experts are urging parents and caregivers to be mindful of other, more common, Halloween dangers, like vehicle traffic and food allergies.
On average, children are more than twice as likely to get hit by a car while trick-or-treating than any other day, Safe Kids Worldwide, an international nonprofit dedicated to child safety, reports.
Here's what adults and children should know before trick-or-treating on Thursday.
Staying safe when the sun goes down
To help keep kids safe from traffic incidents while traversing streets on Halloween night, Safe Kids Worldwide provides the following tips:
- Carry glow sticks or flashlights; use reflective tape/stickers on costumes and bags; and wear light colors to help children be seen by drivers.
- Join children under the age of 12 for trick-or-treating.
- Remind children to cross streets at corners and crosswalks.
- If driving on Halloween night, turn on car headlights early in the day to spot kids farther away and slow down in neighborhoods.
The nonprofit also advised parents to think about what types of face coverings their children are wearing, as masks can obstruct a child's vision while walking.
Avoiding food allergies, on both sides
Food allergies can also be a dangerous around the Halloween season.
The Food and Drug Administration advises parents who have children with allergies to check candy labels to ensure allergens aren't present. Parents should also never allow children to eat homemade baked goods they may have received.
Generally, children should also never accept or eat items that are not commercially wrapped, the FDA advises. If parents are concerned about potential tampering, they should look for unusual wrapper appearances or discoloration, tiny pinholes, or tears in wrappers.
In an effort to aid children navigating food allergies, Food Allergy Research & Education created the Teal Pumpkin Project. The project encourages households to offer nonfood items to trick-or-treaters so allergens may be avoided altogether. FARE recommends items like glow sticks, bubbles, bouncy balls, finger puppets, playing cards, stickers and other Halloween toys as nonfood item options.
Those looking to participate should visit the FARE website, where they can add their address to the Teal Pumpkin Project Map and find resources for how to let neighbors know.
When did parents first become frightful of what is in their kids' Halloween candy?
Fear-mongering about dangerous items, like razor blades and poison, in Halloween candy dates back to the 1960s.
In October 1964, a New York woman was arrested for handing out ant poison and dog treats to trick-or-treaters, according to the History Channel. When she was questioned, the woman said she had only been joking and gave out these items to children she believed were too old to be trick-or-treating. Fortunately, no children were poisoned.
Perhaps the most notable Halloween poisoning took place in October 1974, when a Texas man named Ronald O'Bryan handed out "cyanide-laced pixie sticks" to five trick-or-treaters, including his own son, according to the History Channel. Only O'Bryan's son ate the candy and he died soon after.
No one saw O'Bryan lace the pixie sticks, but investigators learned that he had pulled out life insurance policies on his children. He was convicted of murder and executed via lethal injection in 1984, according to the History Channel.
University of Delaware Sociology professor Joel Best has studied these instances of dangerous items placed in Halloween candy, which he calls "Halloween Sadism," for decades. In 1985, he co-authored "The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban Legends," a research article that largely discusses the history of dangerous treats given to children on Halloween.
Continuing his research on the topic, Best stated between 1959 and 2012, 85 incidents of "Halloween Sadism" have been reported in the United States, per his website.
A recent example occurred in 2015, when an Ohio child found a disposable razor blade in a Snickers candy bar received while trick-or-treating, per previous Paste BN reporting. The child, and others in the area, were fortunately not hurt.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at Paste BN. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com.