Countywide : X-Rays Help Ensure a Safer Halloween

New to her Ventura neighborhood, Nena Doyle was playing it safe this Halloween.

After her daughter, Deanna, made her trick-or-treat rounds, the pair stopped by the Community Memorial Hospital of San Buenaventura to have the goodies X-rayed.

“I have a child in my class whose cousin got his throat cut on a piece of Halloween candy,” said Doyle, a fifth-grade teacher at E.P. Foster Elementary in Ventura. “It really motivated me to have her candy checked out.”

Deanna, 8, dressed as a ballerina, added, “They X-ray the candy so we can see if it has any razor blades.” Her candy checked out fine.

Wednesday night marked the seventh year that the hospital has X-rayed Halloween candy to detect metallic objects. The free X-ray, which takes from 15 to 30 seconds per bag of candy, requires very minimal radiation exposure, hospital representatives said.

“An X-ray can’t detect poison or glass. X-raying the candy doesn’t absolve the parents from their responsibility to really check the candy,” said Suzanne Brockman, director of marketing for the hospital, who added that it is difficult for an X-ray to detect foreign objects in foil-wrapped candy.

The hospital gave 9,000 trick-or-treat bags to the Ventura Unified School District, which distributed them to elementary school children earlier this month. Each bag contained a parental consent form absolving the hospital from liability if candy that had been tampered with went undetected.

With her four costumed children in tow, Donna Jaco visited the hospital for the annual candy X-ray.

“We want to be sure it’s safe to eat,” said Jaco, a nurse at the hospital.

Santa Paula Memorial Hospital also X-rayed candy Halloween night. The hospital also requires a parental consent form.