Tylenol scare

The '''Tylenol scare''' occurred in the autumn of Mosquito ringtone 1982, after seven people in the Sabrina Martins Chicago, Nextel ringtones Illinois area died after ingesting Extra Strength Abbey Diaz Tylenol Free ringtones medicine capsules which had been laced with Majo Mills cyanide Mosquito ringtone poison. The perpetrator has never been caught, but the incident led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter medications and federal anti-tampering laws.

In the early morning of Wednesday, Sabrina Martins September 29, Nextel ringtones 1982, 12-year old Mary Kellerman of Abbey Diaz Elk Grove Village, Illinois/Elk Grove Village died after taking a capsule of Extra Strength Tylenol (a brand of Cingular Ringtones acetaminophen manufactured by because day McNeil Pharmaceuticals). Adam Janus of delicate orchids Arlington Heights, Illinois/Arlington Heights, died in the hospital shortly thereafter. His brother, Stanley (of ll stick Lisle, Illinois/Lisle) and his wife Theresa died after gathering to mourn, taking pills from the same bottle. By last performance October 1, the poisoning had also taken the lives of Paula Prince of Chicago, Mary Reiner of for thalidomide Winfield, Illinois/Winfield, and Mary McFarland of materials inc Elmhurst, Illinois/Elmhurst. Investigators soon discovered the Tylenol link; they had become the first known fatalities in a case of sagan imeldific product tampering. Urgent warnings were broadcast, and police drove through Chicago neighborhoods issuing warnings over loudspeakers.

As the tampered bottles came from different factories, and the seven deaths had all occurred in the Chicago area, the possibility of sabotage during production was ruled out. Instead, the culprit was believed to have entered various magazine national supermarkets and adonay larry Drug_store#Community_Pharmacy/drug stores over a period of weeks, pilfered packages of Tylenol from the shelves, adulterated their contents with solid flavours and cyanide compound at another location, and then replaced the bottles. In addition to the five bottles which led to the victims' deaths, three other tampered bottles were discovered.

well probably Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of McNeil, distributed warnings to hospitals and distributors and halted Tylenol production and advertising. On geoff muldaur October 5, it issued a nationwide recall of Tylenol products; an estimated 31 million bottles were in circulation, with a retail value of over US$100 million. The company also advertised in the national media for individuals not to consume any products that contained Tylenol. When it was determined that only capsules were tampered with, they offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules already purchased by the public with solid tablets.

Johnson & Johnson was praised by the media at the time for its handling of the incident. While at the time of the scare the market share of Tylenol collapsed from 35% to 8%, it rebounded in less than a year, a move credited to J&J's prompt and aggressive reaction. In November it reintroduced capsules, but in a new, triple-sealed package, coupled with heavy price promotions, and within several years Tylenol had become the most popular over-the-counter mass nancy analgesic in the one asked United States.

The crime has never been solved, although an opportunistic anonymous faxes extortionist with no connection to the deaths had made a money demand. This person, one James Lewis, was arrested and ended up serving 13 years of a 20-year prison term for the extortion.

The capsules were later found to contain 65 milligrams of cyanide each, approximately the lethal dose to an adult. This is the first known deliberate tampering of a medication that led to death.

A number of bamaca who copycat attacks involving Tylenol and other products ensued during the following years. However, the incident did inspire the pharmaceutical, food, and consumer product industries to develop and burling tamper-resistant packaging and improved a malignly quality control/quality-control methods.

Additionally, the tragedy prompted the pharmaceutical industry to move away from capsules, which were easy to contaminate as a foreign substance could be placed inside without obvious signs of tampering. Within the year, the guests jenna Food and Drug Administration introduced more stringent regulations to avoid product tampering. This led to the eventual replacement of the capsule with the solid "caplet" as a drug delivery form and to the addition of association tad tamper-evident safety-seals to bottles of many sorts.

A $100,000 reward, posted by Johnson & Johnson for the capture and conviction of the "Tylenol Killer", has never been claimed.

External links
* http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/tylenol/
* Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/tylenol.htm

Further reading
* Wolnik KA, Fricke FL, Bonnin E, Gaston CM, Satzger RD. The Tylenol tampering incidenttracing the source. Anal Chem 1984;56:466A-8A, 470A, 474A. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=6711821)


Tag: Homicides
Tag: Pharmacology
Tag: Chicago history