United States product tampering

Every developed nation has experienced product tampering incidents. The principal difference between domestic and foreign incidents is the motive of the tamperers. In the United States, typically random tampering without prior threat occurs whereas outside the United States, extortion prior to injury occurs, with money appearing to be the primary motive. Most developed nations are either implementing or modifying their rules on the use of tamper-evident packaging. Some features as they are used in the United States would have to be modified or the use of a secondary feature required to meet the standards of various other countries. 

Throughout history, there have been extortion activities during which toxic chemicals have been used. For example, at the end of 1982, there were seven fatal cases of cyanide poisoning after the ingestion of acetamino-phene-tampered capsules. McNeil Consumer Products had to destroy approximately 22 million units and changed the production from capsules to tablets that were more difficult to tamper with (Dunea, 1983 Wolnik et al., 1984). Those responsible were never identified, and some imitators in the United States started contaminating medicines and food products with toxic chemical substances. 

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