Watch out more for moving cars, sports than candy
NEW YORK Hey mom and dad: Halloween's not really all that scary except when it comes to traffic safety.
Despite warnings about tainted candy 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.
And here's something that might surprise you. A study published in 2010 in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found that the most emergency room visits involving children around Halloween are related to sports.
The report stated nearly 18 percent 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."
Which is not to say parents should spend Oct. 31 relaxing. (Are parents ever allowed to relax?) 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.
Tuesday June 18th, 2013 • 9:21:17pm
