CPSC Urges Safety for Halloween Trick-or-Treaters
Chairman Hal Stratton on Halloween Safety
Press Release # 03-025
Transcript
"We think at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, that the most important guideline that we would provide to parents is to make sure that you have costumes made of flame-resistant fabric. That fabric typically consists of nylon or polyester. You can buy them that way or if you are going to make them, make sure that you make them out of something like nylon or polyester that is flame-resistant."
"Reflective tape is a good idea. When trick-or-treaters go out, use reflective tape to put on the costume to make sure that they can be seen as well as possible in the neighborhoods."
"We feel that children should wear masks that have good visibility and are easy to breathe through. For instance, if you have a mask like this where you can't see through the eye holes, that's dangerous. If you do go out and get a mask, get one like this one, where you have good visibility and you can see. If, however, you don't want to deal with the mask issue, you can always use makeup, or you can use face paint to make your own virtual mask, and then you won't have to deal with the mask issue. We're not telling people not to wear masks, we're just telling them make sure you get a safe one, so you have good visibility."
"We've got a project going in conjunction with Dunkin' Donuts where we are running safety programs around the country with local police departments and with our local investigators in various areas, where they are coming out and providing seminars for families when it comes to Halloween safety."
"I would just encourage everybody to celebrate Halloween the way they want to do it and to go about their business the way they want to do it and be safe and vigilent and have a great Halloween. I think its important to children. Its important to my kids, they look forward to it as much as Christmas and we look at it as a real family event. Make it a family event, be safe, and have a lot of fun."
End.