Tylenol scare Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Tylenol scare was an incident in the autumn of 1982 in which five women and two men living near Chicago, Illinois died after ingesting Tylenol (acetaminophen) capsules. It was determined that a culprit had entered various stores and pilfered packages of Tylenol from the shelves, adulterated their contents with a cyanide compound at another location, and put them back into the stores after doing this. These victims were the first known fatalities in a case of product tampering.Johnson & Johnson;, the producer of Extra Strength Tylenol, issued a nation-wide recall of Tylenol capsules, at an estimated loss of US$100,000,000. The company also advertised in the national media for individuals not to consume any products that contained Tylenol. When it was realized that only capsules were tampered with, Johnson & Johnson 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 responsible handling of the entire 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 fast and aggressive reaction.
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.
The crime has never been solved, although an opportunistic 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.
A number of copycat attacks on other products ensued during the following years. However, the incident did inspire the pharmaceutical, food, and consumer product industries to develop tamper-resistant packaging and improved quality-control methods.
This tragic event made the pharmaceutical industry realize that the capsule form was easy to contaminate, since it was possible for a foreign substance to be placed within a capsule without obvious signs that it was tampered with. Within the year, the FDA 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 safety-seals on bottles of many sorts.
A US$100,000 reward, posted by Johnson & Johnson for the capture and conviction of the "Tylenol Killer", was never claimed.
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