WASHINGTON -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission argues that small, powerfully magnetic balls contained in some toys pose "an unreasonable risk of injury" to children and teens and should be taken off the market in their current form. If ingested, the balls can cause serious internal trauma, doctors will testify before the commission in a public hearing Tuesday morning.
These so-called rare-earth magnets -- much stronger than regular magnets -- are included in a variety of desk toys designed for adults, but they attract children's attention. The Consumer Product Safety Commission staff estimates that between 2009 and 2011, at least 1,700 children were taken to the emergency room after ingesting the magnets, with many requiring surgery. If more than one magnet is swallowed, the balls can pull together inside the child's digestive system, resulting in intestinal wounds that the agency has described as like "a gun shot wound to the gut with no sign of entry or exit."
"They're relatively innocuous-looking products, but they can cause a lot of damage to kids' intestines if swallowed," said Dr. Bryan Rudolph, an assistant professor of pediatric gastroenterology at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, part of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
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