MYTH: Razor Blades in Halloween Candy
I thought this myth would be fitting for this time of year with Halloween night fast approaching. I must admit that I had never heard of this myth before I start doing Myth Busting Monday. I am a huge fan of Halloween and trick or treating and all the end of October holiday festivities, but finding tainted Halloween goodies would turn holiday fun into something deader than a zombie.
Here's how livescience.com covers this myth:
Someone ruined the fun for all of us, spreading this cautionary tale about razor blades turning up in apples, candy and other treats given out at Halloween. Intense parental candy-scanning ensued, though actual occurrences of booby-trapped goodies were extremely rare. Most of the fear-mongering developed because of the 1982 Tylenol-tampering scare. [source]I do remember the rule at my house was that my Dad had to inspect my candy 'haul' to make sure it was safe before I could start eating it, but there was never any mention of 'razor blades.' One year an old lady gave us Nibs for a 'treat'; you might be thinking 'what's the big deal about that?' well the big deal was she had just opened a big bag of Nibs, poured them into a bowl and was handing out individual pieces, needless to say those were confiscated.
In researching this myth I found an actual case of tampering with Halloween candy in central Florida:
The Lake County Sheriff's Department is investigating after a razor blade was found inside a piece of candy. David Mahon, 15, made the dangerous discovery in a Three Musketeers bar. The teen picked up the candy after a night of trick-or-treating.According to the super myth busting website snopes.com they confirm that this myth is True. So even though there have been actual occurrences of this myth being true, the likelihood of this happening to you is very rare. So as far as classifying this myth as true or false, I have to say it is true because it has actually happened.
He said he found the razor blade after noticing the wrapper had been tampered with.
"In light of this incident, we really want to get the word out to the community and ask parents to do very thorough checks of their children’s candy prior to them eating it and if they see anything like this, or anything similar, to contact us," said John Herrell, a Lake County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. [source]
Conclusion: True
What are your thoughts about this myth, let us know in the comments?
Technorati tags: razors, blades, halloween, candy
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