“We tried just telling people they should be eating seaweed wafers over chocolate bars or that Halloween costumes shouldn’t actually be scary and no one seemed to pay much attention. So we thought maybe this was because our Halloween safety recommendations were just not clear enough. So this year we decided to be as clear as possible with our recommendations – “ We are recommending: If it’s’ fun, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.”

That is the statement given to NCN reporters by the authors of the annual Halloween Safety Recommendations List. This list is put together by the municipal safety committee known as The Workshop for Healthier Interactions in Northern Environments (WHINE). The main objective of the WHINE committee during the Halloween season is to create a comprehensive list of safety recommendations for children and parents to think about as they participate in Halloween-themed activities. According to the committee though, this list has largely been ignored by most parents.

This list has often included recommendations like which costumes are appropriate to wear, healthy treat alternatives to high sugar candy and recommendations to limit the use of fireworks. But this year’s list is a little different. No more long lists of dos and don’ts that have little impact . This year the committee has condensed all those recommendations into just: “If it is a fun thing to do, it’s probably unsafe and you shouldn’t be doing it.”

The report goes on to explain, “People say we are against Halloween. We are not. If you mean Halloween, as in a day where you are supposed to confront and maybe even enjoy playing on your fears then, yes, we are against that. If you mean Halloween as in a day where you are supposed to eat lots of free candy and run around in the dark maybe shooting off fireworks while playing good-natured tricks on friends then yes we are against that. But no, we are not against Halloween.”