Poison and the public

Sorrow for the victims and outrage at the crime are called for by the poisoning of any product offered for sale to the public. The current Tylenol case demands the full efforts of information, product recall, and investigation that are being given to preventing unwary use of the drug and checking further contamination of it.

At the same time it must be said that some parts of the news media have exploited the situation in a manner that is contaminating in a different sense. This sensationalism can feed fears instead of fostering reason. It ought to be resisted whether the subject is the poisoning of a patent medicine or any of the other threats to health and safety that warrant not panic or alarm but serious, rational, prayerful concern.