How the Tylenol murders changed the way we package, consume medicine

The Tylenol murders 40 years ago prompted federal legislation and sweeping changes to product packaging that now are standard, changing the way Americans consume medication.

Over-the-counter medicine used to be covered by nothing more than a piece of cotton and a plastic lid. Now, federal law requires three layers of protective, tamper-proof sealing.

“People never believed there was something wrong with a name-brand product that you took off a shelf in a drugstore,” said Helen Jensen, the former Arlington Heights village nurse who was among the first in 1982 to make the connection that contaminated Tylenol pills were killing people. “There were no surveillance cameras at that time, or anybody keeping track of anything in any stores. You can't just walk in and pick up a bottle anymore. Somebody would see us.”

“Now, we can't get into bottles.”

Within weeks of the deaths of seven victims from Cook and DuPage counties from pills laced with cyanide, Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson began to introduce tamper-proof packaging. Eventually, the industry standard would be foil and plastic seals on bottles, and gel-coated caplets inside — easier to swallow and harder to tamper with, compared to the old two-piece capsules that could be opened.

Congress passed the so-called Tylenol bill in 1983, making it a federal offense to tamper with consumer products. In 1989, the Food and Drug Administration established federal tamper-proof guidelines for manufacturers.

The rules also extended to the way other consumable products are packaged, like milk and prepared foods.

Michael Petros, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health, said if there's any “good” to emerge from the Tylenol case, it's the increased protection. Petros, who was in the Chicago health department lab pulling apart and inspecting thousands of Tylenol pills in 1982, said he talks with his students about lessons learned from that time.

“We're better prepared in many ways,” Petros said.