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From: tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Tylenol
Message-ID: <1049@ism780c.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Mar-86 21:03:28 EST
Article-I.D.: ism780c.1049
Posted: Fri Mar 21 21:03:28 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Mar-86 00:39:42 EST
References: <190@drutx.UUCP> <1368@ihuxn.UUCP> <2007@hao.UUCP> <1377@ihuxn.UUCP>
Reply-To: tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica, CA
Lines: 27

In article <1377@ihuxn.UUCP> gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly) writes:
>> > they're *all* made at the same factory (in Puerto Rico) where
>> > it would be a lot easier for some paranoid malcontent to modify
>> > the contents before they're sealed.  Why couldn't this have
>> > happened?  The reported line is simply that it didn't, or it
>> > was ruled out.  Anyone know why?
>
>>   Simple probability. Since they ARE all made at the same factory, the
>> odds on two bottles tainted at the factory  showing up a few blocks
>> away from each other, and so far nowhere else, are astronomical.
>>
>But is that really true?  Let's say the culprit tampers with five
>bottles at the factory.  They're on the line, one right after the other.
>Odds are, those 5 will stay together for a while, through a lot of
>packing and distribution (assuming that the stuff is shipped in
>fairly large lots).  If the tainted bunch is ever broken up, I'd
>expect that to happen very late in the distribution.  And so finding
>2 tainted bottles within a 1/2 mile of each other would not be so
>improbable.

If the culprit tampers with five bottles, one right after the other, they
would probably end up in the same area, and in the same lot.  When you
get contaminated bottles from *different* lots ending up in the same
place, it is much more likely that they got contaminated after they
left the factory.
--
Tim Smith       sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim || ima!ism780!tim || ihnp4!cithep!tim