Halloween Candy: Should Parents Worry about Tainted Treats?

Halloween. That spooky, scary holiday filled with costumes, orange pumpkins and yellowing leaves. 

The history of this festive holiday originated from an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced "sah-win"). Every year, the celebration would commemorate the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture.

Since its beginnings, ancient costumes have picked up this holiday by taking old traditions and adding a bit of a modern twist, with everything from bonfires to trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, over the years, there have been some concerns regarding children's safety and ingesting candy from home's they'd picked up during the night. Yet history shows that much of these fears regarding tainted treats are made-up and unnecessary.

Though there have been a few reports of candy tampering over the years, most have been debunked as hoaxes or pranks. It wasn't till 2000 that a single proven incident in the United States showed that a child was injured by Halloween candy from a stranger. James Joseph Smith of Minneapolis was charged with one count of adulterating a substance with the intent to cause death, harm, or illness, according to various reports, after putting needles into candy bars and handing them out. While one child was pricked with a needle after biting into the candy, no others were seriously injured.

There have been at least two confirmed deaths linked to tainted Halloween candy but, family members caused the problems-not strangers. For instance, in a 1970 case, a family member put heroin in a 5-year-olds candy in order to hide the fact that he'd gotten into his uncle's drug stash. Another case happened not too soon after in 1974 when a man named Ronald Clark O'Bryan of Houston, Texas laced his son's candy with cyanide to get a big insurance policy. His son passed away soon after.

In conclusion-sure there have been some scares. You have to stay safe on Halloween, especially if you have kiddies running around. Should you worry about their candy? Not so much.