The CPSC has been waging a “continual and uncompromising War on Magnets” for at least as long as The PediaBlog has been reporting on it: But several thousand children were reported to have accidentally swallowed small, powerful magnets made by various manufacturers over the last decade, according to hospitals and poison control data. The magnet sets were intended for adults. This can result in perforations, twisting and/or blockage of the intestines, infection, blood poisoning, and death.Īdults may have these sort of magnetic toys displayed on an office desk or table, says Todd C.

When two or more high-powered magnets are swallowed, either accidentally or intentionally, the ingested magnets can attract to each other, or to another metal object, and become lodged in the digestive system. In the latest recall involving about 10 million Zen Magnets and Neoballs Magnets sold individually and in magnet sets, the Consumer Product Safety Commission highlights the danger: Gaines saw her at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, they had stuck together inside her abdomen, pulling together her stomach, small intestine and large intestine. They were refrigerator magnets, and by the time Dr. The danger posed by small magnetic toys when young children accidentally swallow them has been on The PediaBlog’s radar for nearly nine years:Ī 2-year-old girl had grabbed a handful of what looked like M&M’s pieces and swallowed them.

Magnet blocks recalled