Sweetly dangerous

Sweetly+dangerous

Instead of Halloween striking excitement into parents, this fun filled day tends to strike fear. Halloween candy may be music to children’s ears, but little do they know this sugary bar can turn into something life threatening.

Consuming too much candy can lead to many health issues such as obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. Over the years, many adults and children have gained weight because of sugar, lack of exercise, stress, and more.

A reason parents get afraid while their children are Trick-or-Treating is because they don’t know about the backgrounds of their neighbors. Hearing about children getting poisoned candy on the news scares them. There have been a few cases where kids did get poisoned and tragically died.

Parents also get shaken up due to the fact that those same neighbors that they don’t know can put razor blades in the candy so when children bite down into the mouth watering treat, their mouth can get deep gashes in their tongue or gums.

“Now that my daughter, Madison, is fourteen and is allowed to Trick-or-Treat without an adult, I get worried because I work late shifts and I’m sure she gets into the candy when I’m not there,” Krisy Ducharme said. “I just get really worried sometimes.”

Sick people can poison the candy with drugs that are harmful. Most parents go will go Trick-or-Treating with their children to make sure they don’t eat the candy until they check it. Once they get home, parents will spread the candy out on the table to check. Most likely they will not come across  tampered candy packages. When and if parents find tampered candy, they can’t really trace back what house it was that distributed the candy considering how many house they might have gone to.

“Before Madison goes out, I tell her that when she comes home she needs to put her candy on the counter so when I get home from my late shifts, I can check her candy and maybe sneak a few pieces for myself,” Ducharme said.

To check the Halloween candy, parents should sit in a room with bright lighting. Second, they should throw out any candy with twist wrappers, because it might have been tampered with and then re-wrapped. Next, throw out any homemade candy that was given out by strangers. Last, take the rest of the candy to x-ray tests at a local medical facility.