![]() ![]() These magnets are exponentially more powerful than the larger, rubbery variety used for decades in refrigerator magnets.īut tiny, powerful magnets are a stealthy hazard. That's because the magnets, made of neodymium iron boron, have become more affordable, popping up in all sorts of children's toys, including dolls, building sets, action figures, puzzles and games. The threat of such injuries has soared in recent years. Yet if children injured by magnets don't get surgery quickly enough, they can die. What's so insidious about a small-magnet injury is that initially it can seem like just a stomach bug. "If they would have taken me seriously," Grigsby said, "that little boy would be alive." In March 2006, the CPSC announced a voluntary recall of all Magnetix Magnetic Building Sets, citing "34 incidents involving small magnets, including one death and four serious injuries." The recall has been expanded. The agency didn't take action until after Kenny Sweet died. Nor did the agency respond when parents and caregivers complained that magnets were falling out of Magnetix toys. The CPSC didn't act, though, even as toymakers' use of such magnets skyrocketed. CPSC investigators in 2000 and again in 2003 documented cases of children suffering intestinal injuries after swallowing magnets from other products. Government regulators knew Magnetix toys, which allow children to fashion complicated geometric structures out of colorful plastic pieces, could cause these dire injuries. Bipartisan neglect since then has left the agency with fewer than half the number of employees it had in 1980 - deeper cuts than in any other federal health and safety regulator. The federal government gutted the CPSC in the early 1980s, less than a decade after its inception. Combined with skimpy budgets and reduced staffing, the provision undermines the agency's power. That law gives manufacturers great sway in how government officials regulate children's products. ![]()
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