Magnets in toys attract scrutiny from CPSC, Congress
Yesterday was magnet day — or more specifically, danger-of-magnets-in-toys day. In Washington, the Consumer Product Safety Commission held a forum to discuss ways to reduce the risk of injury that tiny magnets can pose to small children and others. Meanwhile, in Chicago, two powerful Illinois Democrats, Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Bobby Rush, held a field hearing to discuss the same topic. Durbin, Senate Majority Whip, and Rush, the chairman of the House energy and commerce subcomittee on consumer protection, took CPSC chairman Nancy Nord to task for not acting more promptly to recall toys that contain magnets.
The problem with small magnets is that they can fall out of toys and pose a hidden but serious hazard to children. If two or more magnets are swallowed, their mutual attraction through the walls of the intestines can cause severe blockage resulting in infection, blood poisoning, and even death. Since they often don’t pass through the digestive system, they have to be surgically removed. Scores of children have had to under go this delicate surgery; one died.
You may wonder why, all of the sudden, this has become such a big issue. After all, magnets have been used in toys for decades. The difference today is that manufacturers are now using “rare earth” magnets, which are much more powerful than the common magnets you might have on your refrigerator. The compact size of rare earth magnets makes them more suitable for building sets and other toys. But they're not just used in toys; they can also be found in jewelry such as earrings, push-pin replacements for bulletin boards, and even new powerful fridge magnets. Since rare earth magnets have increased in popularity, the numbers of ingestion incidents have jumped significantly.
And the risks don't just apply to toddlers. Yesterday, we were surprised to learn that incidents often involve teenagers, although most occur between the ages of 3 and 8. Playful kids often experiment with magnets, using them to squeeze soft tissue or skin, as well as their tongue. It’s easy to accidentally swallow these magnets. Younger kids may also mistake them for candy, since the can be the same shape as Smarties or other popular candies.
What makes this a particularly stealthy hazard is that the small magnets can fall out of toys unbeknownst to a caregiver and hide themselves in places where children, not adults, can best find them. Children can put them in their mouths without their caregivers knowing. The symptoms — abdominal pains, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. — may not show up for days and misdiagnosis is not uncommon.
Last month, the voluntary standard setting organization, ASTM International, improved the toy safety standard to require toys with powerful magnets to carry warning labels about their risks. Manufacturers are also supposed to test their toys to make sure the magnets don’t fall out. Compliance is voluntary. But that standard needs more work. Incident data presented at the CPSC’s forum made it clear that risk isn’t just from magnets that fall out of toys that pose the risk. Even magnets still contained within toys can be small enough to be swallowed.
- The CPSC forum suggested several ways to combat this emerging hidden hazard:
- Educating parents and caregivers about the hazards of ingesting multiple magnets.
- Educating the medical community on how to diagnose a magnet ingestion incident.
- Strengthening the new toy standard to make sure will screen out all toys that have been associated with ingestion incidents.
- Studying the power of the magnets that have caused injury and consider how the most powerful magnets could have restricted use.
- Coating the magnets with bittering agents that make the magnets taste bad.
At the same time, the two congressmen made it clear that would seek legislation to give the CPSC more power to recall products, especially when companies refuse to do so voluntarily. The vow, from Durbin and Rush, came after CPSC chairman Nancy Nord testified at their field hearing about the magnetic-toy recalls.
We did not attend the hearing, but according to press reports, Nord gave the congressmen few answers about toy magnets, saying the agency had “an open investigation” and was hamstrung by a law that barred the CPSC from speaking publicly about a specific product without first running its comments by the manufacturer. Nord also said the CPSC lacked the resources and authority to react more quickly to consumer complaints.
Also testifying was Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. She minced no words: “To protect children, we need an aggressive and proactive federal partner. Unfortunately, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is under-funded, under-staffed and seemingly uninterested."
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