CPSC bans sale of Buckyballs, recommends safe safe bubblewrap instead

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**daedalus**

Okay, so not the last part, but I swear to the Emperor of Man, it's getting close.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/25/us-usa-buckyballs-idUSBRE86O1LN20120725

WASHINGTON | Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:00pm EDT

(Reuters) - The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) ordered a halt to sale of Buckyballs magnetic toys on Wednesday, calling them a serious hazard in the panel's first stop-sale order in 11 years.

The commission ordered distributor Maxfield and Oberton Holdings of New York to halt sales because injuries to children who had swallowed them had continued to rise, the CPSC said in a complaint.

"Notwithstanding the labeling, warnings and efforts taken by (Maxfield and Oberton), ingestion incidents continued to rise because warnings are ineffective," the CPSC said. It said the magnets presented a "substantial product hazard."

Buckyballs are small, powerful round rare earth magnets that are sold as toys and desktop accessories. When children swallow them they can pinch or trap intestines and require surgery to remove, the CPSC said.

Since they went on the market in 2009, numerous incidents involving children have been reported. In January 2011, a 4-year-old boy had his intestine perforated after he swallowed three magnets he thought were chocolate candy, the complaint said.

Although the commission issued a safety alert in November, it has received more than a dozen reports since then of children ingesting the magnets, with many requiring surgery, it said.

More than 2 million Buckyballs and at least 200,000 Buckycubes, a similar cube-shaped magnet, have been sold in the United States. They were made in China, the complaint said.

Maxfield and Oberton must cease importation and distribution of the magnets and issue refunds as part of the ruling, according to the panel's complaint. The company must also tell retailers to stop distributing the toys.

Maxfield and Oberton founder and Chief Executive Craig Zucker said his company marketed the magnets to adults and teenagers and the CPSC held the "absurd position" that warnings did not work.

"We will vigorously fight this action taken by President Obama's handpicked agency," he said in an emailed statement.

A CPSC spokesman said the stop-sale order was the first by the commission in 11 years.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Todd Eastham)

Are you thinking of the children yet?

**SilverMK2**

Natural selection at work?

I love those little magnetic toys - surely it is the parent's fault for a) not giving appropriately aged toys to their children b) not warning them of the dangers of the toys (after apparently plenty of warnings on the packet) and c) not properly supervising their children.

Kind of like complaining if showed your child an 18 cert horror movie and they got nightmares...

**Squigsquasher**

I have buckyballs, I love fiddling with them.

How the hell did a boy mistake them for chocolate? What a brainless twit.

**SilverMK2**

Squigsquasher wrote:I have buckyballs, I love fiddling with them.

How the hell did a boy mistake them for chocolate? What a brainless twit.

Maybe he was a brainless twix

**Squigsquasher**

Weak, silver...very weak.

**SilverMK2**

I thought it was pretty... sweet

**daedalus**

Well, I guess they're sticky... for some definitions of sticky.

**Coolyo294**

Squigsquasher wrote:I have buckyballs, I love fiddling with them.

How the hell did a boy mistake them for chocolate? What a brainless twit.

Because 4 year olds are known for their genius-level intellect.

**Melissia**

Wait, they're selling fullerene* as a toy?

*Buckminsterfullerene, IE, "bucky balls". Carbon nanotubes are also fullerene.

**azazel the cat**

Squigsquasher wrote:I have buckyballs, I love fiddling with them.

How the hell did a boy mistake them for chocolate? What a brainless twit.

Ever see those silver candy balls that decorate cakes?

However, upon eating one magnet and -hopefully- recognizing that it was not, in fact, made of chocolate, the kid would stop eating them. But then, not all kids are going to grow up to be astronauts and engineers.

**Avatar 720**

"...because warnings are ineffective..."

I sense the floodgates opening now that warnings are being noted as being inneffective, and are obviously now no defence against stupidity.

We've relied on warnings for years to stop stupid people being able to profit from their own stupidity ("I'm afraid that that was your own fault, we do have a big warning written out here in bold print, underlined and surrounded by flashing neon lights...") and I wonder just what precedent this will set.

**azazel the cat**

Avatar 720 wrote:"...because warnings are ineffective..."

I sense the floodgates opening now that warnings are being noted as being inneffective, and are obviously now no defence against stupidity.

We've relied on warnings for years to stop stupid people being able to profit from their own stupidity ("I'm afraid that that was your own fault, we do have a big warning written out here in bold print, underlined and surrounded by flashing neon lights..." and I wonder just what precedent this will set.

All this really means is that people should never make potentially dangerous toys; rather, they should only make perfectly-safe toys, or toys that are such an obvious hazard that it completely removes the complainant from the equation. ---> "timmy's first hand grenade playset"

**Grey Templar**

I'm going to start selling my services as a warning lable writer. Specifically, I will offer smart-ass labling to make people think twice about suing you.

For an example, your typical pair of scissors.

"Warning, this is a potentially dangerous tool. Keep out of reach of small children. Of course that should be obvious to people of average intelligence, but it's worth repeating for all the people of below average intelligence out there that don't think of it. Again, these are very sharp and very dangerous. If this is the first time you have heard this, you obviously never had a mother or father to tell you so. In which case the public school system and/or the orphanages have failed miserably."

How bout some lighter fluid,

"Warning, Flammable Liquid. Way obvious here, considering you'll be lighting fires with it. And for goodness sakes don't drink it. Not only is it gross but it could also poison you, not to mention its still flammable. Also, keep it away from kids. Again, very obvious. Make sure they don't have any matches or lighters either because, you know, this stuff burns"

Now we got some nice fresh free range chicken breasts,

"Warning, improper cooking may result in food poisoning. Duh, Salmonella is no joke people. Cook your frikkin chickin, at least 167 degrees for 10 minutes to kill all that nasty stuff that might, I emphasize MIGHT, be in this food. And wash your hands. Most food poisoning actually originates from in your kitchen and not the food you bought. Yeah, the nasty germs are on your hands and on that cutting board you didn't clean before chopping your salad. Geeze, you people are so gross."

**Manchu**

Grey Templar wrote:II will offer smart-ass labling

I want to do the same thing with fortune cookies.

"Your lucky numbers are 7, 19, 21, 38, 43, 57. I just know you'll win this time."

Let's talk.

**Orlanth**

Melissia wrote:Wait, they're selling fullerene* as a toy?

*Buckminsterfullerene, IE, "bucky balls". Carbon nanotubes are also fullerene.

Ahh, Buckminsterfullerine, proof that Americans should be prohibited from naming anything.

**Melissia**

Actually, several of the people who initially synthesized it were British.

**hotsauceman1**

Bummer, I wanted to get one of those.

**Inquisitor Ehrenstein**

Some people are just really fething idiotic about safety.

Wow....

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm going to check who won WWII again. It doesn't seem like it was America right now...

**Grey Templar**

Nah, American Commercialisim will triumph in the end. It always does.

Someone will make CPSC plush dolls of the various goonies that make the decisions. That will get banned because the dolls are flammable.

**SagesStone**

The doll's torsos are also filled with the recalled buckyballs.

**Grey Templar**

O, i just got some new warning labels.

For Cereal,

"Warning, may pose choking hazard if eaten improperly."

For premade frozen PB+J sandwitches,

"Warning, this product contains Peanut products. It is called a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwitch ya dumb schmuck."

For Sharp Edged signs,

**SagesStone**

Yeah I've seen the really obvious ones before for stuff that is packaged as nuts with on the back of it "WARNING THIS PRODUCT MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF NUTS AS IT IS PROCESSED ON MACHINES THAT PROCESS NUTS" or something like that, it's always in caps though.

**Jihadin**

Wonder how many buckyballs were used to magnitized 40K vehicles