In relation to Halloween, I decided to do talk about an article titled “Poisoned Halloween Candy: Treat, Treat, or Myth” that I found on FoxNews.com. In the article, it spoke about how people have come to believe that some people in our society our trying to poison our children on Halloween. It stated that despite what all the things that may gave lead parents to believe that, there has never been a documented case of a stranger poisoning kids’ Halloween candy. The article stated that every October since at least 60 years, phantom portraits of the evil Halloween humbug have been passed on by the media and word of mouth. Even so, some parents still inspect the candy before they will allow their children to eat it. One researcher named Joel Best remarked that nearly 100 of the stories of contamination he came across were tall tales. A professor of pediatrics also mentioned that every October, there is a myth that strangers are getting ready to poison candy. The article then goes on to talk about one two cases that related to poison, both done within the family (no strangers). In the first case, a child was poisoned by Halloween candy. The 8-year old sucked on a Pixy Stix laced with cyanide and died in 1974. The killer was his own father. The other case dealt with a 5-year old who decided to try some of this uncle heroin. In attempts for the family to cover up their bad parenting, they sprinkled heroin on the child’s Halloween candy in hopes of using the candy myth to cover their negligence. Lastly, the article stated that parents should worry about other things on Halloween, such as the high risk that a child can be killed by a car (4 times more likely).
From this article, I felt that people have come to believe that since Halloween is an “evil” holiday, weird strangers are out to kill their children with “POISON.” I have never believed in the myth because I have never seen any pure cases where they had found a perpetrator that was of no relatedness to the victim. The whole idea that a lot of people have beliefs that strangers poison candy can be seen as people being influenced by the bandwagon effect. If someone sees that the media has made a big deal out of poisoned candy, people in the communities are going to want to take measures to prevent these acts from being done on their children. I believe that this myth is going to be around for more years because it has marked itself in the holiday.
What’s your opinion on this?
Coming from someone who's mom always reminded me to check my candy before I ate it, I too think this myth will be around for many more years to come. I also agree that parents should be more worried about other things such as their kids getting hit by a car or abducted. This was a very interesting article because every year I can remember hearing about this myth and I am glad that someone finally put it to bed. After reading this maybe parents should focus more on the other life threatening things.
ReplyDeleteWhat always amazes me is that when I tell this to parents they a) don't believe me or b) say well it doesn't hurt to check.
ReplyDeleteI remember my mom would not let me eat any of my candy until I poured all of it on the table to make sure there were no opened wrappers. Not believing there was anything wrong with my treats (except for that occasional apple) and not wanting to wait I would always eat a handful when she was not looking. I definitely agree that parents should focus on more important and actually justified risks to their children's safety
ReplyDeleteBy the way, what's up with you and T.J. stealing one another's post ideas?
ReplyDelete