tamil.html - intransitive verb (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society) To interfere with the packaging of consumer goods, especially so as to
engage in consumer terrorism. Used especially to
form compound adjectives: tamper-evident, of the packaging of foodstuffs, medicines, etc.: having a
visible seal or other device which makes obvious any opening of the packet
between manufacture and sale; tamper-resistant, so constructed as to make tampering with the product difficult or impossible. History and Usage: The search for tamper-resistant packaging,
especially to prevent young children from harming themselves by mistaking adult medicines for sweets, had already been going on for some time
before the first
major case of consumer terrorism in the US in 1982. In this incident, cyanide was added to the contents of Tylenol pain-killing capsules and several people were killed after taking them. Later in the eighties,
consumer terrorists tampered with baby foods and other foodstuffs in the
US and the UK. This new area of crime led to the concept of tamper-evident packaging, incorporating some feature (such as shrink-wrapping or a seal
which changed
colour on contact with the air) to make it obvious if the package had been opened since leaving the factory. He said the firm had been checking products item by item since the first Tylenol poisonings in the fall of 1982, but that it 'quickened' its pace to put tamper-evident packaging on its products in the wake of the second Tylenol poisoning incident earlier this year. Chicago Tribune 2
May 1986, p. 2
