WKSU News: Cleveland Clinic doctor pushing for magnet ban

Thursday, July 26, 2012 Cleveland Clinic doctor pushing for magnet ban Maker of Buckyballs says product carries ample warning labels and is only marketed to adults by WKSU's KABIR BHATIA	Reporter Kabir Bhatia

Businessweek called Buckyballs the most popular cubicle toy since the Rubik's Cube, and the manufacturer says there are copious warnings about ingestion on the product, with less than two-dozen cases reported after half a billion tiny magnets have been sold

Courtesy of Amarand Agasi-Flickr

In The Region:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is suing the maker of Buckyballs, which are marketed to adults as a novelty desk accessory. WKSU's Kabir Bhatia reports that a Cleveland Clinic doctor is one of those leading the national fight to ban the sale of the tiny magnetic spheres.

Cleveland Clinic doctor pushing for magnet ban

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The rare-earth magnets, made of neodymium, were popular in childrens' toys a decade ago, before pediatricians noticed a disturbing trend. Kids sometimes mistook them for candy.

Or older kids used them to mimic tongue piercings, accidentally swallowing them.One of those who met with members of Congress and the safety commission last month to push the ban is the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Marsha Kay. She says the risk goes well beyond choking.

“If you swallow more than one magnet, the magnet can attract across parts of the gastrointestinal tract. One of the magnets may be in the stomach, while another may be in the small intestine and the colon. They are so powerful that they will not separate once they attract. And they literally cause a hole between those two parts of the intestine."

Kay says that symptoms may not show up for weeks or months, at which point surgery is usually the only option.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it has already convinced 10 companies, including Amazon and Brookstone, to stop carrying the product.

But in a statement, Buckyball manufacturer Maxfield & Oberton called the lawsuit "unfair, unjust and un-American," citing less than two-dozen reported cases of magnet misuse.

Andrew Frank, spokesman for Buckyball manufacturer Maxfield & Oberton, says the company is concerned about safety.

“We have five warning labels on the box. We have point-of-sale labels. We link to the CPSC, which is a notification that they put out, which we worked with them on back in November of last. This is an adult product, for adults 14 and above to be using.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has convinced 10 companies to stop carrying the product.

Listener Comments:

I feel it is absurd to ban them it would be more sense able to ban fireworks and that will never happen.

Posted by: david danforth (434 6th st apt 305 raymond wa 98577) on July 28, 2012 7:07AM

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