Product Tampering

Incidents of individuals using food and drink to deliver lethal doses of poisons to unsuspecting victims are fairly common in recorded history. However, product tampering as a means of murder wasn't much heard of until 1982, when the first and most notorious case occurred in Chicago.

All kinds of materials have been used to adulterate food and medicine. They include insecticides, pesticides, strychnine, arsenic, hydrochloric acid, mercury, mercuric chloride, fecal matter, and foreign objects such as straight pins, razor blades, staples, and glass. Cyanide is particularly popular with poisoners, because the lethal dose of 200 to 300 mg is just the amount that will fit into a typical gelatin capsule. In addition, it is readily available because it is used in a number of products found ...