Poisons used to come in dark brown bottles with vertical ribs, but it really seems odd that poisons or toxic chemicals, medicines or substances are not strongly coloured albeit artificially. That way, say a bright red, would alert anyone to it being a dangerous substance, be it liquid , powder or solid.
Yes you’re right, they did change this at a later date! That detail of how they should be stored was eventually stipulated by the Pharmacy Act which came into force after this incident. Poisons were to be stored “In a bottle or vessel rendered distinguishable by touch”. The sale of Arsenic Regulation Act was in force at the time though - arsenic had to be coloured before leaving the shop, but unfortunately it didn’t help in this situation - it hadn’t been coloured yet, so a mixup could easily be made!
Sometimes things are a perfect storm, and this is one of them. While the professionals should have done their job thoroughly, and held their standards higher, things like this will happen eventually. While it's sad that 21 people died, I agree that it absolutely is a better outcome to what could have happened. This reminds me of the Tylenol poisonings, it could have been so much worse, but so many people lucked out. Not to mention that there are, albeit morbidly, good things that came from these incidents. Maybe their descendants (of both incidents) should check if they're part cat or something? A good video as always, take care until next time!
It definitely was a perfect storm wasn't it! I agree, there was a lot of luck in both of those cases that more people weren't hurt. Also, it sounds like the people investigating in both this case and the Tylenol case seemed to be pretty on the ball which likely helped a great deal. It's terrible that these things happen, but I'm glad that there's often a silver lining to these incidents and change happens to make things safer 🙂. Thanks for watching and take care 🙂
