The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a warning about small, high-powered magnets that are found in a number of popular kid toys. The small yet dangerous magnets have been linked to at least seven deaths after the magnetic beads were ingested. The CPSC’s warning comes after five other companies that sell toys with magnetic beads refused to issue a recall. At least one U.S.-based company that sells such toys has issued a recall on its products.
The magnetic toy in question is made up of small high-powered magnetic balls that measure just under five millimeters. When ingested, they can cause serious damage. The CPSC explains that the magnets can become lodged in the digestive system, perforate tissue, and attract other magnets that are ingested or another metal object. The magnets are also made out of rare earth metals which can lead to other infections, blood poisoning, and other serious and life-threatening issues.
XpressGoods, a seller of the popular magnetic toys, has since recalled its Neodymium Magnetic Balls because of the safety hazard. The toy also fails to meet new federal safety regulations. CPSC found that the magnet toys sold by XpressGoods do not comply with new federal toy regulations on magnet toys approved last year. Under the new standard, magnets must be either too large to swallow or too weak to cause internal injuries if swallowed.
The toys sold by XpressGoods violated this standard because they had one or more magnets that fit within CPSC’s small parts cylinder used to test allowable diameters. This cylinder is about the size of a fully expanded throat of a child under three years of age. The magnets were also stronger than the CPSC allows.
XpressGoods sources its toys from China but is based out of North Carolina. The company sold about 700 units of the magnetic toys between July 2021 and May 2022. Since issuing the recall, the company has offered full refunds and directly contacted its customers about the dangers.
The CPSC says that at least seven individuals have died because of these magnetic toys, including two deaths outside of the United States. Another 2,400 individuals have gone to the emergency room between 2017 and 2021 with injuries related to ingesting these high-powered magnets.
Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesperson Patty Davis expressed the dangers these types of toys posed saying, “If you have kids in your house, these can be deadly.”
Other products that included these hazardous magnetic balls include SplishSplashFun’s SplishSplash Balls Reusable Water Balloons; MXN Commerce Inc.’s Carrara Magnet Ball Sets; Magic QQ’s 216-Piece Mixed Color Magnetic Ball Sets; Ming Tai Trade’s 216-Piece 5mm Magnetic Ball Sets; Sunny House’s 125-Piece 5mm Mixed Color Magnetic Ball Sets; and Allvre’s 216-Piece 5mm Magnetic Ball Sets.
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