Several large retailers are involved in a recall of around 11 million bottles of acetaminophen after Perrigo Co. (NASDAQ: PRGO) announced they had found metal fragments in some of their bottles. So far no injuries have been reported.

After scanning 70 million caplets with a metal detector, the company discovered the metal in about 200. When I first read this story and saw the word fragments I for some reason had the mental image of some metal scrapings having been detected, but according to the FDA the "fragments" ranged in size from "microdots" to wire one-third of an inch long. That's quite a fragment indeed.

Among the companies likely to be involved in the recall are Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), CVS Corp. (NYSE:CVS), Walgreen Co. (NYSE:WAG) and Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ:COST), but a formal list has not been released. The company said that 383 batches were effected as a result of raw material purchased from a third-party supplier. The company's website must be getting nailed today, I have tried repeatedly to see if I could find anything else out by looking over their site, but server overload seems to have shut them down for the time being.

Since the potential consequences of ingesting the metal fragments is presumed to be temporary the recall is being done on a voluntary basis, but I think you can be pretty sure no store wants to wind up with the public relation nightmare of selling contaminated medicine that they knew in advance had risks involved. According to the FDA, should you consume a contaminated pill you could encounter minor stomach discomfort or possible cuts to the mouth and throat.

Shares of PRGO haven't been hit too hard today in light of this recall, with the stock selling off 3.4% to $17.39 down $0.62.