1980's Tylenol Tampering

My dad mentioned this to me and I was wondering if anyone had any info on it. I haven't searched yet for it but tell me your knowledge on the subject please. Thanks


Nightwalker

It was here in the Chicago area. Some psychopath was replacing Tylenol capsules in stores with some sort of poison. I believe he was caught. That's all I remember. Regardless, you no longer see capsule form OTC drungs anymore. They are now solid.

1982
The Tylenol capsules were laced with cyanide and something like 8 or 10 people died.
The manufacturers of Tylenol recalled I believe every bottle of Tylenol caplules. This was the incident that caused companies to increase the tamper-resistant packaging OTC drugs and the like are sold in today.

They never caught the person who did it.

-B.

...again I date myself...

I remember this as it was high news at the time. People were in somewhat of a panic about buying over the counter meds for a good while. This also ushered in the sealed bottles and other protections most at the time felt were silly, now they really do seem indespensible!!
People were checking bottles in the store to see if the contents looked funny- it was a sad day.

Originally posted by Tyriffic
...again I date myself...

nah. I was a little kid and I remember it. wasn't there also problems with somebody putting razor blades into baby food, or was that a different time?

It's really too bad because I used to empty out the contents of the gel capsules and fill them with gun powder to make little firecrackers. Oh, that and people died. That is too bad as well.

Originally posted by MorningtonCrescent

Originally posted by Tyriffic
...again I date myself...

nah. I was a little kid and I remember it. wasn't there also problems with somebody putting razor blades into baby food, or was that a different time?

Yes, I do recall some sickness like that.....I was in my 20s so, I grew up when you didn't worry or hear of things like this in the news. It really was something that was talked about for months on end- I was kinda freaked out and was one of those who opened bottles at times. I recall not buying tylenol for a few years also...alot of people did.

sucks even more now

They had a recent story on the news because it was the 20th aniversary, I heard one guy took some Tylenol and fell to the floor, then his brother got at headache at this family event and took one as well. Sad indeed.

snopes story

[Edited on 8-8-2003 by sparky]