Why the urban legend of contaminated Halloween candy won't disappear

[sl8]

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1208459235/why-urban-legend-contaminated-halloween-candy-wont-disappear-razor-blade-poison
(2 min. audio at link)

Why the urban legend of contaminated Halloween candy won't disappear

October 31, 2023 5:11 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
By Kaity Kline

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."

[...]

"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.

[...]

[liberal N proud]

1. Always wondered about razors in apples

Apples are not forgiving when you break the skin.

[mitch96]

2. In my hospital we would offer a free option to parents concerned about this problem of metal in candy

In the many years of this service fluoroscoping (xray) candy we only found one incident. A needle placed in a
snickers bar.. Stood out like a sore thumb on the xray. That was a bummer to see. What sick mind would do that?
m

[JI7]

3. There have been cases of kids being shot while trick or treating

but we aren't going to do anything to change that.