Tylenol Recalls; 1982 All Over Again?

Over a quarter-century has passed since the ‘Tylenol Scare in which seven people in the Chicago area died from intentionally tainted, (with poisonous cyanide), capsules.

The makers of Tylenol at the time, Johnson and Johnson, immediately took action upon hearing of the Chicago deaths and recalled their products nationwide. They then set out to make an example of corporate responsibility an d crisis management that is still followed by many companies today.

Tylenol themselves have recently relied on their crisis management skills to recall one of their most popular drugs, Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplets in the 100 count container with the signature ‘easy-open’ red top.

In September 2009, Tylenol voluntarily recalled several of its children’s products that did not meet their high standards for an inactive ingredient. Tylenol claims, and proves, to be a caring company by preemptively striking against possibly dangerous conditions in their medications. There were no reports of children or babies becoming ill before the recall.

Then just two months later in November 09, Tylenol began receiving reports of people who fell ill after taking the arthritis medication and most noticed a ‘moldy’ or ‘musty’ smell wafting from the open bottle of capsules. Tylenol immediately went into crisis management mode and recalled all their arthritis pain relievers.

In a prepared statement, the makers of Tylenol, McNeill Consumer Healthcare said that the mildew-like odor linked to their capsules, which gave people diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach pains, were a temporary condition and that people should stop taking the capsules.

Tylenol has tracked the offensive and sickening odor to a chemical breakdown in the solution used to treat the wooden pallets that much of the product’s packaging material are stored on at the factory and sometimes shipped upon in semis or train railcars.

Back in 1982 when the ‘Tylenol/cyanide killer’ tampered with bottles of the leading pain relievers once they were placed on the shelves, Tylenol sprang into action and recalled their products – something no company wants to do. The Tylenol Company believes in protecting the people first and product second.

Many companies have followed the crisis management model first perfected by the Tylenol Company in the early 80s however many more refuse to own up to a faulty, defective or health damaging product.

It was weeks after several hundred people were hospitalized and a number of small children had died before the lettuce industry came forward to claim responsibility for salmonella contaminated lettuce. A reporter in a small-market television news team noticed several tires, at the auto accidents she was covering, had similar tread conditions and helped to expose Firestones negligence in underreporting their faulty tires that came standard on many different makes of cars, mostly Jeep.

Pet food manufacturers are quite possibly the worst because they don’t seem to care that pets are dying because of their tainted food products. Several hundred dogs were killed in late 2005 and again in 2007 because they were eating salmonella tainted foods. One company settled several lawsuits out of court however most people only wanted their beloved four-legged member of the family back.