CNSC Fortune Way

An example of a data integrity issue, and probably one of the most famous examples, is the CNSC Fortune Way story in 2007.

If you aren’t familiar, this case resulted in numerous deaths due to poor decisions and choices that led to poisoned cough syrup. This is worst consequence that can occur as a result of a data integrity issue – loss of life.

Fraud & Inaccurate Documentation

Fraud and inaccurate documentation combined, resulting in catastrophic consequences.

A wholesaler purchased cheap diethylene glycol, a poisonous industrial chemical, and represented it as glycerin, a common, more expensive pharmaceutical additive.

Certs of Analysis

Certificates of analysis were changed several times to identify the product as 99.5% pure glycerin. The container labels identified the material as glycerin TD. TD is shorthand for the Chinese word meaning “substitute”.

Mislabeled Diethylene Glycol

The mislabeled diethylene glycol was unknowingly used in cough syrup preparations and a number of deaths resulted in Panama, Haiti, Bangladesh and India.

Clearly this data integrity failure was wholly preventable and was the result of intentional falsification of data.