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The nation was alerted to the danger of the suspect drug as soon as the connection was made. Police cruisers, rolling through Chicago streets Thursday afternoon and evening, blared warnings over loudspeakers. All three national television networks carried stories about the contaminated drug on the Thursday-evening news. On Friday, the FDA belatedly advised consumers to "avoid in prudence" all bottles of the capsules. By then it was virtually impossible to obtain Extra-Strength Tylenol anywhere in the Chicago area or indeed in many locations around the country. Two Midwestern retail chains, Jewel and Walgreen, withdrew all bottles of the pain reliever from their stores.
The publicity caused a nationwide scare. One Chicago hospital received 700 calls about Tylenol in one day. People in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and other cities were hospitalized on suspicion of cyanide poisoning. Dr. William Robertson, director of the Poison Control Center in Seattle, offered some grim words of reassurance: "If it was going to be a lethal dose, you wouldn't have time to call."
Johnson & Johnson, whose McNeil Consumer Products subsidiary manufactures the painkiller, immediately recalled bottles with lot number 1801 MA, MC 2880 or 1910 MD, which were among the batches found in the victims' homes, and sent out half a million warning messages to physicians, hospitals and distributors. McNeil agreed to turn over all of the company's distribution records to the Illinois department of law enforcement and to bear the cost of collecting unused and unsold Tylenol, an expense that could reach into the millions of dollars. Until now, Tylenol enjoyed a solid reputation and healthy sales. Analysts estimate that Johnson & Johnson sells be tween $300 million and $400 million worth of the analgesic a year. An $85 million advertising campaign has helped the company increase its share of the pain-reliever market from 4% to 37% since 1976. But the cyanide scare may do damage to the company's product. Says one stockbroker in Chicago: "The name Tylenol is now linked with poison in people's minds."
At week's end authorities could only hope that more victims would not turn up. They were worried, too, that the cyanide murders would encourage a new, over-the-counter terrorism that could be aimed at companies or random individuals. Already this year, someone tampered with eyedrops and nasal sprays sold in Los Angeles; at least ten people suffered burns, but no one died. The frightening truth, says FDA Deputy Commissioner Mark Novitch, is that there is no way to protect the public from people who do such things. — By Susan Tifft.
Reported by Lee Griggs/Chicago