The deaths, together with that of a 12-year-old lady who had swallowed a Tylenol capsule hoping to fend off a chilly, unfold terror all through the nation and made People surprise if they may belief acquainted merchandise on grocery and pharmacy cabinets.
Drugstores and supermarkets throughout the USA eliminated Tylenol from their cabinets. State and native well being officers issued warnings, and 1000’s of frightened individuals who had taken the favored ache reliever flooded hospitals, docs’ places of work and poison-control facilities with calls.
In response to the deaths, Johnson & Johnson ordered a nationwide recall of 31 million bottles of Tylenol, with a retail worth of greater than $100 million. The corporate pulled its tv commercials off the air. And it supplied $100,000 for info resulting in the arrest and conviction of the “individual or individuals answerable for the murders.”
Simply six weeks after the disaster erupted, the corporate additionally supplied an answer: a brand new Tylenol bottle with security options to stop tampering together with a cotton wad, foil seal, childproof cap and plastic strip. The design is now extensively used all through the trade. Capsules started to get replaced with caplets the next yr.
The seek for the offender, nonetheless, proved elusive.
After the deaths, greater than 100 state and federal brokers fanned out throughout the Chicago space in an effort to reconstruct the route of the poisoned capsules. However they may not decide the supply. Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois State Police, mentioned in an announcement on Monday that, “at the moment, the investigation remains to be ongoing.”