In February of this year, two people in Seattle died as a result of taking cyanidelaced Sudafed capsules a 12 hour antihistamine drug. A third victim survived. The most recent attack was the fifth involving a popular consumer health product since the Tylenol case nine years ago. What it proves, is that no consumer product is tamper resistant. Product tampering or the threat of product tampering is more common than we realize.
Most threats never make the front pages of the newspaper.
Before 1980, few companies thought about or were prepared to deal with product tampering. Now many are seeing the writing on the wall. They have put together crisis management teams, looked for ways to make their products tamperproof and developed detailed plans that they will use in case of an incident. For example, after the Tylenol incident, many drug manufacturers stopped producing capsules and started making caplets, a solid tabletlike form which is more resistant to tampering. They also started packaging their products in blister type packs that are not easily opened.