# Did you get your Halloween candy X-rayed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 24, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218 "2010-10-24T21:01:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/21 "2010-10-25T08:30:26Z")
I went on the rounds as a kid in the 60s, and my mother always inspected all of our candy. I can’t remember whether or not any hospitals offered Xray services for candy. When I was a teen, I made popcorn balls, and we put them in paper sacks to hand out to the kids that we knew. My mother typed our name and address and noted that we’d give out candy instead of the popcorn ball if the parents wanted to exchange it. We never had any exchanges, just requests for the recipe. We gave out store candy to kids that we didn’t know. For my own kid, my husband and I usually chaperoned her route, or she went with some of her cousins, and one of their parents would chaperone the route. And we always inspected the candy, but never got it Xrayed. I never saw any suspicious candy, either. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/22 "2010-10-25T12:40:21Z")
We wouldn’t get out candy x-rayed, but my mother would check my candy before I was allowed to have any. Oddly enough, all the gum and Bit O’Honeys would disappear after she had checked it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/23 "2010-10-25T13:11:50Z")
Seems like a waste to me, why not use a metal detector? Much quicker and cheaper. I don’t think there has ever been an actual case of poisoned candy or razor blades given out for Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/24 "2010-10-25T13:46:30Z")
> [@NoiseBomb](#): > > At least as kids, most of us liked McDonald’s. I’d rather go hungry than eat there now though. > > There was the one house who gave out two pencils and a nickel. A nickel. This was in the early 80s. Oh Mrs. K, if you only knew the shit we kids talked about you that year. My mother gave out raisins when I was elementary school. I _hated_ the day after Halloween with a passion. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/25 "2010-10-25T14:03:58Z")
> [@Vlad\_Igor](#): > > Nope, no X-rayed candy and never found anything questionable. I do seem to recall one community hospital offered to X-ray candy, but I didn’t hear about it again after that year. I imagine no one showed up. > Heh. You’re funny. Now it’s vaccines, GMO/Fs, Mexicans and Socialism. Lecherous gay men seem to be on the way out. It’s also child predators. A couple years ago when I was living in Maryland, there was a state or county law that anybody who’s on the registered sex offender list is prohibited from distributing candy to trick-or-treaters. They weren’t even allowed to have lights on if they were visible from the street, and they had to have a sign in the window that identifies them as being on the sex offender list. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/26 "2010-10-25T14:18:22Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > It’s also child predators. A couple years ago when I was living in Maryland, there was a state or county law that anybody who’s on the registered sex offender list is prohibited from distributing candy to trick-or-treaters. They weren’t even allowed to have lights on if they were visible from the street, and they had to have a sign in the window that identifies them as being on the sex offender list. :rolleyes: Quite a few still have to do that: in some jurisdictions, they have a mandatory meeting for all the registered sex offenders that happens to coincide with trick-or-treat hours. To answer the OP: The hospital in my town did offer to x-ray candy, but by the time that became the rage, I was too old for trick-or-treat. But I do remember one older lady in my neighborhood that always made the best candied apples, and she was the only person I was allowed to take and eat the apple right away. Anything else homemade either had to be inspected or my grandma had to know who gave it to me before I could have it. And Act II popcorn balls are nowhere near as good as homemade. Just sayin. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/27 "2010-10-25T14:23:10Z")
I never xrayed my candy and I’m just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/28 "2010-10-25T14:33:19Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > It’s also child predators. A couple years ago when I was living in Maryland, there was a state or county law that anybody who’s on the registered sex offender list is prohibited from distributing candy to trick-or-treaters. They weren’t even allowed to have lights on if they were visible from the street, and they had to have a sign in the window that identifies them as being on the sex offender list. :rolleyes: Yeah, in my town they have to post a sign, keep their lights off, and stay home (unless they can prove they have to be at work). Last Halloween at work I spent most of the evening fielding calls from outraged busybodies reporting that “So-and-so the sex offender isn’t at home!” There were two extra officers on duty just to drive around and check for compliance. 'Cause, you know, 10 seconds exposure to a registered sex offender in full view of your parent or guardian for the sake of a fun-size Snickers bar is just the kind of traumatic horror that can destroy a child’s life. I’m so glad I don’t have to work this Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/29 "2010-10-25T14:39:09Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > …The 80’s were a dangerous time and you had to choose your battles carefully or you would run out of energy and die. We focused mostly on Satan worshipers who sacrificed animals in the woods and were looking for the ultimate child sacrifice. Nuclear war was about to break out at any time so studying for tests was of questionable utility. Made for TV movies told us that millions of perfectly sane and sober people just woke up homeless one day and never knew what hit them (as opposed to today where that probably can happen). One hit of certain drugs made people insane for life, and millions of kids were randomly abducted annually right in front of their parents by strangers. It was a hellish war-zone I tell you… I am just glad people don’t fall for that type of fear-mongering propaganda from the mass media anymore. I enjoyed your post. 😛 **a35362** Another child (well, teen) of the '80s ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/30 "2010-10-25T14:59:32Z")
No. I was a kid in the late 80s/early 90s and never even heard of that. Like a lot of other kids, my mom checked over everything and threw out any candy that looked suspicious at all. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/31 "2010-10-25T15:52:22Z")
No. > [@Antigen](#): > > Wouldn’t it be expensive for a hospital to X-ray a bunch of candy? I’d imagine a setup like the airport would make more sense, where you put the bag on a conveyor belt and it goes through a scanner. You know, I never thought about it before, but you’re right. Hospital x-rays are, AFAIK, unlike airport x-rays. It’s a lengthy and expensive process, and the pictures come back on film. It takes a while. I can just picture a bunch of kids sitting in the waiting room in Radiology. Now that’s a fun Halloween! ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/32 "2010-10-25T16:29:04Z")
Wow, you guys had candy left over to X-ray? My sister, friends and I gorged so much we were ready to hurl by the time we got home. Usually the only things left were the hard candy and laffy taffy (I hated that stuff). Still, I do remember watching the news with my mom about having candy X-rayed - she just told me not to eat anything that wasn’t pre-packaged or that looked like it had something pointy in it. Simple enough. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/33 "2010-10-25T17:08:32Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > Wow, you guys had candy left over to X-ray? My sister, friends and I gorged so much we were ready to hurl by the time we got home. Usually the only things left were the hard candy and laffy taffy (I hated that stuff). > > Still, I do remember watching the news with my mom about having candy X-rayed - she just told me not to eat anything that wasn’t pre-packaged or that looked like it had something pointy in it. Simple enough. I’m a product of the 90’s, and I don’t know anyone who wasn’t under strict parental orders not to eat _anything_ before we got home. Stuff like popcorn balls were okay if they came from people we knew. When I was really young, everything got a brief inspection to make sure it wasn’t moldy or full of needles or anything, but once I was old enough to go out with friends and not my parents (late elementary school, probably), I was trusted to not shove suspicious-looking candy from strangers down my throat. I have never even heard of x-raying a kid’s Halloween loot. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/34 "2010-10-25T17:29:54Z")
Hell no. Heck, my parents didn’t even check my candy. Of course, my parents don’t get into the Halloween spirit and I always went trick or treating with friends. Which was great because then you could trade. I always brought home candy for my parents (that I didn’t like 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/35 "2010-10-25T18:00:31Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Nope, no X-rays. We were just told to throw away any candy that wasn’t wrapped properly. > > I don’t remember signs saying they gave to charity, but I did get [Jack Chick Tracks](http://www.chick.com/default.asp) in my candy bag. What’s funny is that \*That Other Guy Named Jack \*still is pushing his first of several Halloween tracts, _[The Trick](http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0011/0011_01.asp)_. In pages 3 through 8 {by tract review convention, the cover counts as page 1} we see the slander against witches (who are all Satanists, BTW :rolleyes:) that they deliberately insert dangerous objects and substances into the snacks. Later in the tract we see the results of another goal: Surviving children are spirtually compromised, lose their relative innocence, and become “rebellious” – especially about going to church and Sunday School. (It couldn’t possibly be that their behavior has changed because of the shock of losing at least one of their friends, could it?) This is one of the very first tracts in which JTC seems to have gone completely loco. If the witch-Satanists can influence the children by casting spells on treats, why not just stick to that strategy? And with some parents being careful enough to insist that their kids limit their begging to people that they know, \*\*\*(Bwawww haww haww hawww…) \*\*\*it would only be a matter of time before the police were going around to a handful of houses, asking questions. With the slightest suspicion aroused, they’d send the drug-sniffing hounds over soon enough. * * * In case you are wondering why Brenda seems to be crying, even as she secretly smirks, she no doubt is doing just that. Chick was influenced by [Dr. Rebecca Brown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Brown_(Christian_author)), who claimed that there is special training to cry at will. * * * “Remember what happened to Bobby last year.” – “Bobby” seems to be the most used male given name in all of Chick tracts. Charles/Charlie is pretty frequent as well. _ **- Jack** _ ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/36 "2010-10-25T18:36:31Z")
> [@Marlitharn](#): > > Cause, you know, 10 seconds exposure to a registered sex offender in full view of your parent or guardian for the sake of a fun-size Snickers bar is just the kind of traumatic horror that can destroy a child’s life. Amazingly enough, many registered sex offenders are not pedophiles and probably would never touch a typical trick or treater age kid. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/37 "2010-10-25T22:25:25Z")
In Chicago in the early 70s the hospitals offered free x-rays of candy. I never got it done as no one was really gonna drive to the hospital to do it. I don’t think until the Tylenol tampering case of the early 80s, did people REALLY think about product tampering in a big way. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/38 "2010-10-25T22:31:30Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Seems like a waste to me, why not use a metal detector? Much quicker and cheaper. But what if the Nefarious Evildoer puts broken glass in the Halloween treats? :eek: > [@](#): > > I don’t think there has ever been an actual case of poisoned candy or razor blades given out for Halloween. Why do you hate America’s precious little children!!!1!!1 ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/39 "2010-10-25T23:14:52Z")
Our local fire department got hold of one those conveyor belt thingies one or two years to check candy. I would have been 7ish, so 83 or 84. It was just that one or two years that they did the x-ray, though they kept having the haunted house/community Halloween party for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218/40 "2010-10-26T00:14:34Z")
I remember hearing about something like this in Albuquerque in the early '80’s but I don’t know if they still do it. Nowadays worried parents take their kids trick or treating at the shopping malls. We didn’t do it in my family when I was a kid–we were just told not to eat anything that was unwrapped (of course I did and I got sick, but that was probably a coincidence.) When I lived in Lexington there was a story in the paper about some parents finding pills in their childrens’ candy bags. Maybe it was a dealer giving free samples (because the first hit is ALWAYS free) but later I wondered if a kid hadn’t raided his parents’ medicine cabinet on Halloween and handed the pills to his friends. Either way, it seems to have been a one time occurence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-get-your-halloween-candy-x-rayed/558218.md?page=3)