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Hospital will X-ray treats
to detect harmful tricks
Program 'puts fun back into Halloween'
By Janet Goode
Reporter
An eerie excitement is irvthe air as
Halloween arrives bringing cos
tumed children, greasy makeup,
sticky fingers and, in the aftermath,
sick tummies.
Droves of wide-eyed children hid
den behind masks and makeup will '
threaten tricks and gather treats as
usual. But instead of going straight
home, many parents will break the
excitement for a while to have their
children’s candy X-rayed.
St. Joseph Hospital will screen the
candy for metal objects tonight from
6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The program was started in 1983
by Carol McDermand, director of
radiology at the hospital, who says
she wanted to put the fun back into
Halloween.
It was prompted in part by press
releases and reports of people in
metropolitan areas finding pins, ra
zor blades and other objects in Hal
loween candy, says Rees Stuteville,
assistant director of radiology.
There are too many frightening
stories — even if they’re not from
this community — that parents just
don’t forget, McDermand says.
Because the X-rays can only de
tect metal objects, Stuteville says,
parents are asked to accompany
their children and sign a permission
slip showing that they understand
the screening is not foolproof.
The hospital workers throw away
all unwrapped and suspicous-
looking candy because it can still
contain undetected chemical sub
stances, such as drugs or poisons,
Stuteville says.
Some of the children get upset
when you take away their candy, he
says, but it’s a lot better to have them
upset than hurt.
Stuteville says the hospital has
been lucky in past years and hasn’t
found any objects in the food-
But although no harmful candy
has been found, McDermand says,
she still feels the project is a worth
while.
“If nothing else, it gives parents
peace of mind,” she says.
Stuteville says it takes only 15 to
20 seconds to X-ray a large bag of
candy and relieve worried parents.
“You hate to see a holiday lose im
portance because of a few warped
minds and strange people who want
to hurt a kid,” he says.
He says this program helps con
tinue the tradition of Halloween, but
trick-or-treating safety should begin
earlier. Parents should have a good
idea of the neighborhood their chil
dren will be in, and be familiar with
the people they will be visiting, he
says.
Stuteville says he expects a lot of
people to come to the screening to
night since the last program in 1984
had a surprisingly large turnout.
“The first time we set (the pro
gram) up, it was for only one hour
and we had more kids than we could
handle,” Stuteville says.
Mexican press supports protest
against U.S. anti-drug measure
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican
newspapers Thursday staunchly
backed the government in protest
ing the United States’ new anti-drug
law, charging that the singling out of
Mexico revealed U.S. ignorance or
even a plan to undermine the gov
ernment.
The new law, signed this week by
President Reagan, “implies im
proper interference in our affairs
and shares in absolutely false and
slanderous assumptions,” the gov
ernment newspaper El National said
in its editorial.
Excelsior, a respected Mexico City
daily, said sections of the law “smack
of hiding other aims, namely that of
taking advantage of the drug-traf
ficking problem ... to make the
country more penetrable by foreign
interests.”
A State Department report issued
last week said Mexico in 1985 was
the largest single-country source of
heroin and marijuana imported into
the United States and also a conduit
for South American cocaine.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry on
Wednesday protested to the State
Department about parts of the new
law.
They cited a provision urging the
president to formally warn Ameri
cans of the dangers of Mexican
travel “unless substantial progress is
made in the near future” in the in
vestigation of the kidnap-murder of
one U.S. drug agent and the alleged
torture of a second.
Another section, which does not
mention Mexico but could create
problems for the heavily indebted
country, would end U.S. support for
loans to drug-supplying countries
from international development
banks.
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman said Thursday the
Reagan administration did not sup
port the sections of the legislation
mentioned in the protest note.
Justice Department officials have
expressed displeasure with the pace
of Mexico’s investigation of the Feb
ruary 1985 kidnap-murder of Enri
que Camarena, a Drug Enforcement
Administration agent.
El National criticized the “neigh
bors to the north” who judge and
condemn Mexico’s judicial processes
according to the U.S. legal system.
“The United States (has) the goal
of assigning us the responsibility for
a phenomenon that is not ours but is
entirely theirs: the . . . growing con-
sumption of narcotics, which is not
an effect but a cause of the traffick
ing carried out across our territory,”
the newspaper said.
Make time for the
mystical, musical
Festival of India
1986!
MSC OPAS will present Festival of India 1986 in Rudder Auditorium,
Movember, 3. Celebrate the extraordinary artistic heritage of India —
mesmerizing music, masked dance-dramas, sculpturesque love dances,
and a religious 12th century martial art called Kalaripayyatu.
Experience the intensity, the rich diversity of colors, costumes and
dances, the haunting tones of flutes and the exotic sitars and percus
sion of a fascinating and vibrant culture. For tickets, call the MSC Box
Office, 845-1234.