Hey, mom and dad: Halloween's not really all that scary - except when it comes to traffic safety.
Despite warnings about tainted candy, candle fires and even child abductions, real Halloween headlines are rarely about any of those things. Instead, tragedies related to the holiday typically involve trick-or-treaters hit by cars. Even those accidents are relatively few in number.
And here's something that might surprise you. A study published in 2010 in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found that most emergency room visits involving children around Halloween are related to sports.
The report found nearly 18 per cent of injuries on Halloween were to the finger and hand, and a third of those were lacerations, with some likely resulting from pumpkin-carving. But the report added that "a much higher proportion of injuries that occurred on Halloween were associated with sports, including football and basketball, than with knives."
Obviously, you need to know where kids are, monitor candy hauls, and make sure they can see out of their masks and won't trip on their costumes. But here are some statistics to provide a reality check on what's really scary about Halloween.
? Tainted candy: Urban legend vs. reality
Of course you should examine goodies and make sure kids avoid treats that aren't sealed.
But know this: "There isn't any case of a child killed or injured from a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating," according to Joel Best, a professor at the University of Delaware who has extensively researched the subject.
Best says there have been more than 100 reports of tainted treats going back to 1958, but they include a father who poisoned his child to collect insurance money, incidents where someone gave out booby-trapped goodies but nobody was injured, and cases where kids had food allergies.
? Car accidents
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation, between 2006 and 2010, more pedestrians under the age of 21 were killed by cars on Oct. 31 than on Oct. 30 or Nov. 1.
The numbers are small: A total of 16 deaths took place on Oct. 31 during those five years, compared to 11 on Oct. 30 and 10 on Nov. 1.
One way to increase pedestrian visibility on Halloween: Have kids carry a flashlight or glowstick, or add glow-in-the-dark necklaces or reflective tape to costumes.
? Do you know where your children are?
Statistically, it's rare for children to be kidnapped by strangers, but it seems like there's always a case in the news. So it's understandable that Halloween makes parents nervous, with kids out after dark, sometimes unaccompanied by parents, often approaching strangers to ask for candy.
It goes without saying that parents should keep track of kids, stay in touch by cellphone with teens, and make sure younger children have adult supervision.
But perhaps you'll find this reassuring: There is no data to suggest an increase in reports of missing children on Halloween, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the U.S.
