The Consumer Product Safety Commission is on the case: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml12/12243.html

Its arguments are a bit saddening: They sound like "there's some stuff you need to do to reduce the danger to children, but we all know they can't be done, so lolb&"

However, this specific company, Zen Magnets, does not have clean hands IMO, misleadingly marketing its product as a "science kit" to try to legally sell this stuff to 8-year-olds, when the product is clearly meant for people old enough to understand that you shouldn't even tempt fate with these things, as teenagers (who generally are old enough for toys with small rare-earth magnets to be marketed to them, that is, 14+) have tried to do by simulating tongue piercings and occasionally ingesting the pair of magnets on accident.

I for one believe that this sort of product should not be banned outright and that the kind of public-education campaign that the CPSC regarded as a failure could work if expanded.


tl;dr: nanny state FTL

1/4/2013 9:17:06 PM

Quote :

"B&"

1/4/2013 9:50:32 PM

You guys know that Bucky Balls just shut down because of this same issue, right?

1/5/2013 10:01:15 AM

yup

that's why I didn't say "a.k.a. Buckyballs" even though that's a better-known brand

1/5/2013 5:42:06 PM

I'm sure you meant br&

1/5/2013 5:57:56 PM

[Edited on January 5, 2013 at 5:59 PM. Reason : lolz, that's a good c&id response

1/5/2013 5:59:34 PM

B&z a make her dance?

1/6/2013 9:11:56 AM

Magnets&
Kids&
Swallow&
Dead.

1/6/2013 9:47:04 PM

Quote :

"The Commission staff alleges in its complaint that Zen Magnets warning and labeling are defective because they do not effectively communicate the hazard associated with ingestion of the product. The complaint further alleges that the product's design and packaging are also defective because they fail to prevent children from gaining access to the product, and do not allow parents or caregivers to know readily if a magnet is missing and is potentially within the reach of a young child. The complaint alleges that once separated from the packaging, the individual magnets themselves display no warning against ingestion or aspiration, and the small size of the individual magnets precludes the addition of such a warning."

that all applies to a roll of pennies just as well.

1/7/2013 6:23:59 AM

Pennies aren't magnetic inside you

1/7/2013 6:32:59 AM

yay for nanny state.

1/7/2013 12:27:00 PM

^^replace magnet with penny in that quote is what i was talking about, obviously.

1/7/2013 6:17:44 PM

but the problem is that when you swallow a pair of pennies, they never get attracted to each other and then tear the fuck out of your intestinal walls; rather, the worst that happens is that you might feel some discomfort and then you poop them out

1/7/2013 6:20:35 PM

Well, maybe don't swallow any fucking magnets then. If you have kids, maybe don't have these things in the house, or don't let the kids near them.

Fuck, razor blades aren't labeled with "do not ingest" on each replacement blade either. Fucking ridiculous.

1/7/2013 6:37:51 PM

LickHer is dumb

1/7/2013 6:47:43 PM

Razor blades aren't marketed as toys either

1/7/2013 6:48:36 PM

Also not sold at toy stores, stored in toy boxes, or look like candies

1/7/2013 6:52:56 PM

^^^^^if you swallow a pair of the magnets right off, the worst that happens is that you might feel some discomfort and then you poop them out. the pinching would happen from eating one magnet, then forgetting the discomfort from eating that and eating another a half hour or so later. that's what's done by the kind of kids/people that would want to hug cars on the freeway or jump out of second floor windows because superman flies.

1/8/2013 4:06:05 PM

so we'll just ask the little children to eat them quickly

got it

1/8/2013 4:18:22 PM

Yeah, or you could just try being a better parent.

Fuck it, these things sound like they should be mandatory in every home.

1/8/2013 4:44:50 PM

I've got over 600 Buckey Balls on my desk, and I haven't managed to swallow one yet. I've been tempted, though, you know, because they look exactly like candy.

1/8/2013 6:40:01 PM

eh just order them directly from china

1/8/2013 9:52:28 PM

^^then again you aren't a little kid

or some young punk who thinks he's edgy looking like he has a tongue piercing

1/8/2013 10:47:15 PM

sorry. not feeling sad for people who fail to supervise their children, much less some "young punk" who is ostensibly old enough to know better than to put freaking magnets in his mouth and swallow them

[Edited on January 9, 2013 at 11:16 AM. Reason : ]

1/9/2013 11:15:53 AM

well that's because you are a hateful moron

1/9/2013 11:47:54 AM

^^It's not as simple as "hurr durr me swallow ball"; rather, it's like a few teenagers think it's cool that the magnets will attract each other on the tips of their tongues and will look like a tongue piercing, and then basically any movement of the tongue, like when speaking, could result in one or both going down the hatch.

1/9/2013 5:03:21 PM

which isn't a huge problem unless they do the SAME THING before they poop out the first one.

1/10/2013 8:44:55 AM

i ordered some Nd magnets from Hong Kong and i got them the other day... they are strong enough to hold each other on both sides of my granite countertop or my hand (they are smallish... around 1 cm in diameter and about 2mm in thickness)

I can put them on my ears and it looks like i have them gauged.

[Edited on January 10, 2013 at 8:47 AM. Reason : ]

1/10/2013 8:46:38 AM

Don't let them fall in your ears, could lead to......
nevermind.

I love my buckyballs.

1/10/2013 7:27:29 PM

Quote :

"It's not as simple as "hurr durr me swallow ball"; rather, it's like a few teenagers think it's cool that the magnets will attract each other on the tips of their tongues and will look like a tongue piercing, and then basically any movement of the tongue, like when speaking, could result in one or both going down the hatch."

and? Like I said, if you're that stupid, then let's give natural selection a chance to work for once.

1/10/2013 8:29:40 PM