This came up a few weeks ago on HN. Not to express any opinion about the regulatory action happening here, but you might be surprised to learn that you could be better off swallowing a nail than you would be if you swallowed a pair of these tiny magnets.<p>Swallowing the magnets is a <i>big deal</i>. As they transit your system, they can easily find themselves on either side of a fold of tissue, whereupon they lock together, gradually kill the tissue, leak gut bacteria into the bloodstream and create sepsis.<p>On the other hand, if you swallow a nail, there is apparently a very good chance that your doctor will just tell you to go home and look for it in your poop. This according to a journal article I found last time the story came up.<p>Worse still, the risks are deceptive. As a parent, you would no doubt freak out completely if you discovered your toddler ate a nail. I know I'd be at the emergency room minutes later. On the other hand, parents are routinely told by their doctors to wait and watch the poop when other innocuous round objects are swallowed. It is very easy to see how parents could make the wrong call about the magnets and wind up with gravely ill children as a result.<p>---<p>More things you might want to know about the CPSC complaint:<p>* Despite warnings, there've been numerous continuous incidents of kids needing surgery after ingesting the magnets.<p>* The magnets are marketed to kids 14 years and up; there are apparently lots of reports of teenagers using the magnets to hold jewelry for e.g. fake lip piercings.<p>* When you sell tiny rare earth magnets to teenagers, it is awfully hard to ensure that those magnets don't end up in the GI tracts of little kids that share a house with those teenagers.<p>* Warning labels for this suck because the product practically demands to be taken out of packaging; once you assemble a structure with them, it's not like you break them back up and put them in a box.<p>* Little kids love these things, because they're shiny, they click, and they move in unexpected ways.<p>The CPSC wants the death penalty for this product. I'm not there with them, but I see where they're coming from.
It is symptomatic of a larger problem, the inability to characterize risk coupled with the demand for action. Some characterize it as a tragedy of the commons, personally I agree with Schneir that its simply bad parenting and bad luck.
from the CPSC press release:<p>Since 2009, CPSC staff has learned of more than two dozen ingestion incidents, with at least one dozen involving Buckyballs. Surgery was required in many of incidents. The Commission staff alleges in its complaint that it has concluded that despite the attempts to warn purchasers, warnings and education are ineffective and cannot prevent injuries and incidents with these rare earth magnets.
You know, I really have to question the author's credibility. The blurb at the bottom says:<p><i>Todd is the author of “Dispatches From Bitter America.” The book is endorsed by Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Sean Hannity. Click here to get your copy.</i><p>...which leads me to believe this is more political than a case of really wanting to save Bucky Balls. For example, notice how the article is almost exclusively dedicated to the CEO, while the "victim" only gets half a sentence?
I was in the gift shop at the Pacific Science Center (Seattle) two months ago. The Buckyball demo video was playing on the corner of the sales counter, surrounded by the other science toys and kits that the museum sells. So I feel this claim of "marketing to adults" is somewhat disingenuous.
It was alluded to in the comments, but how is this worse than steak knives, time locking doors, things with exposed wires or any other dangerous objects?
Discussion on the ban 2 weeks ago <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4294041" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4294041</a>
Would these be vastly less fun if they were bigger, and thus a lot less likely to be swallowed? 1" diameter rare earth magnets would be pretty fun I think, although maybe more dangerous (due to being stronger)?
There are about 10000 things that are toxic if swallowed. Household cleaning supplies, toothpicks, you name it. Warnings do nothing, the kinds of people or children who swallow them aren't going to be reading warnings.<p>The paradoxical thing is that the complete abandonment of personal responsibility (no parent is responsible for watching their child) is coupled with a requirement that the business owner assume superhuman levels of responsibility (devising his product in such a way that it is bad-parent-proof).