Common Sense Is the Best Prevention

Consumers beware. Yet another dreadful incident of drug tampering has resulted in needless deaths. It jolts us into the realization that public safety efforts cannot provide fool-proof protection against some demented person bent on such despicable activity as drug tampering.

Two deaths in the Tacoma-Olympia area of Washington state have been attributed to poisoning from cyanide-laced capsules of 12-hour Sudafed, a popular, over-the-counter decongestant. Burroughs Wellcome Co., maker of Sudafed, issued a nationwide recall and uncovered at least six tampered packages of the blister-packed cold capsules. The FBI, local police and state and federal health authorities are working to trace the tainted drugs back to a suspect.

The episode has rekindled the quiet dread and fear that accompanied past drug poisonings. Since 1982, 12 people, including the most recent victims, have died. Only one case in 1986 was traced to a wife who poisoned her husband and another woman. Some drug makers have stopped using the capsule form, while others, including Sudafed’s manufacturer, follow the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for tamper-resistant packaging.

Federal officials are warning that tamper-proof packaging does not exist--only tamper-resistant. “Any product can be tampered with,” FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler said. “Consumers must maintain their vigilance. They must look twice before taking any over-the-counter product.” Kessler has appointed a task force to study banning capsule forms of non-prescription drugs.

Limiting capsules to be sold from behind the drug counter may be more realistic, given that capsules are the most viable dosage form for some drugs, such as time-released medication. The elderly, in particular, prefer capsules; they possibly wouldn’t take their medicine if it was too difficult to swallow.

Common sense, meanwhile, is the best precaution for now. Examine packages and consumables closely, be they drugs or food.