Feds Ban 'Buckyballs' Magnets

SicariusMan writes "Looks like warnings and other precautions were not enough to save Buckyballs Magnets. According to this report, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is concerned about the increase in children swallowing the rare earth magnets, and has issued its first stop-sale order in 11 years. Amazon and others have already agreed to stop selling the toys. '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.'"

Comments

First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[crazyjj]

How about a ban on stupid trailer-park dumbass kids who ruin it for the rest of us?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Reverand Dave]

Seconded.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[SlickNic]

Thirded?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Anonymous Coward]

As I read it, it is just the inclusion in toys that are banned....we just have to shop at legitimate supplier sources and build our own toys now...no biggie.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[darkpixel2k]

How about a ban on stupid trailer-park dumbass kids who ruin it for the rest of us?

They already tried that. You may have heard of "Planned Parenthood"...

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[shentino]

Indeed

We need an incentive for lazy ass parents not to take a mile when the government gives them an inch.

The only place this slippery slope is going to end is with parents doing fuck-all to teach their kids about safety and ya know actually supervise them and letting Big Nanny decide everything.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MightyMartian]

Fucking crazy. Some schizophrenic lunatic can buy thousands of rounds of ammunition of the Internet, but God forbid anyone should buy a Buckyball magnet.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Zocalo]

Hey, at least we know that it reality it takes at least a dozen dumbass kids now to ruin it for everyone else... The Onion pegged it at three, back in the day.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[DesScorp]

How about a ban on stupid trailer-park dumbass kids who ruin it for the rest of us?

Why is this insightful? It's not the kids, or even their parents that are banning this stuff. They're a vocal minority. It's a government that wants to nanny us 24 hours a day banning things like this. "For the children" is just another variant of "the public good". Various levels of government want to regulate... or outright ban... everything from the size of your soda to the ingredients in your food.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[bky1701]

I always thought these seemed expensive. Buy iron-zinc BBs and put them through a strong electromagnet. Not rare earth, but should work just fine.

I think I just found a black market to enter!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[ackthpt]

How about a ban on stupid trailer-park dumbass kids who ruin it for the rest of us?

I found a load of these on the ground in a park. Never mind how they got there, how do you expect children to read the warning which isn't present with these things? Also, you, I and likely everyone else on /. put stuff in our mouths in a time when we were so young we don't remember what these things were (but our mothers tell us, usually at the most inopportune times) These things, for the amusement value vs. the hazard value are understandable. See some of the x-rays where a couple of these things pinch and then pass through stomach and intestine walls. I've ever received some darn painful pinches from them while idly playing with them.

I hate to see it happen, but these really are a danger to children.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AmiMoJo]

You seem to be arguing that people less responsible than a well adjusted adult should not be given dangerous things to play with.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[ackthpt]

As I read it, it is just the inclusion in toys that are banned....we just have to shop at legitimate supplier sources and build our own toys now...no biggie.

And that legit supplier goes by the name eBay (though I have bought some RE magnets from other sources, it's effectively the mall.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

It's not the kids, or even their parents that are banning this stuff.

It's the parents who killed their kids who are looking to blame others that are calling for the ban. The government didn't call for the ban. There wasn't an independent investigation that found them unsafe. It was parents begging the government to ban them that got them looked at. And the democratic government looked at the wishes of the citezens and responded.

The issue is either that democracy is bad, or the parents are to blame.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[macshome]

I had the Viper that would shoot the dart all the way, before the recall.

Also, this. http://www.theonion.com/articles/fun-toy-banned-because-of-three-stupid-dead-kids,290/

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[geekoid]

The kids aren't dumb asses. Kids are kids. Young kids put things in their mouth, it's human nature. Dumb ass parents, and dumb ass owns of these magnets are why it happens.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[v1]

I found a load of these on the ground in a park. Never mind how they got there, how do you expect children to read the warning which isn't present with these things?

Never mind that nail, rock, and used condom over there on the ground. What if someone's kid picks that up and tries to swallow it? Lets ban all that stuff!

No. How about you teach your kid common sense and save the entire world the trouble of looking after them for you? I'm not going to run around the world slapping warning labels on stuff for your kid that may not even be old enough to read yet.

"Don't childproof the world - worldproof the child."

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[geekoid]

No, "The Government" is responding to citizen concerns. The people who don't want something banned don't get together to stop it. It's the Citizen who allow this to happen.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[geekoid]

yeah, fuck thinkgeek responding to a government stop sell. WTF are they supposed to do? You wan't to be pissed at someone? be pissed at the people who brought this concern to the government. Take that anger and get other poeple together to tell the government you don't want them banned. Oh, you won't do that because it takes work, and it's hard..and besides you have all those new steam games to play.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Sponge Bath]

nail, rock, and used condom...

Call me old fashioned, but I always preferred rock, paper, scissors.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Greyfox]

If you're an adult you don't necessarily have to have your fun ruined. Just get your rare off magnets off United Nuclear web site. Be sure to go for the ones labelled in red, "EXTREMELY DANGEROUS MAGNET". That's their code for "this is the fun one!" While you're there you can pick up some uranium ore and death ray parts.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Sponge Bath]

I had lawn darts. Flying Death From Above is what we called them, and that's the way we liked it!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Xenx]

I can think of plenty of other things kids can find on the ground that would be just as dangerous. Broken glass being a common one. Then there are biological agents, such as pest control. You obviously cannot prevent every possible danger to children. People with common sense have the right to enjoy things that are not inherently harmful to others.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[macshome]

Oh we never had those, but I gave them at birthday parties a lot.

Getting them stuck in the roof of a nearby house was always awesome!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[cheekyjohnson]

And the democratic government looked at the wishes of the citezens and responded.

The wishes of how many citizens, exactly?

I wish they'd do the same thing with the TSA and just get rid of it. If it was anything like this, a vocal minority could get rid of it.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Anonymous Coward]

The best part is when the dumbasses say things like "we did much worse things in my day and *I* survived!". Of course you survived, you fucking asshole, all the kids who didn't aren't here to say they died.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[ATMAvatar]

Responsibility begins before purchase.

If the child is old enough and responsible enough to save up money and pay for their own toys, he/she is not within the group of children likely to die by these magnets. In any other case, the parents (or some other presumably responsible adult) are purchasing the magnets.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

I've seen the x-rays.

The problem is that, if you have 2 of them, they don't pass through the intestine like the other stuff kids swallow. They pinch 2 sections of intestine together, crush them, and cause necrosis and blockage, and, like you said, perforation. The kids can die. They need fairly invasive surgery. There weren't too many deaths, but there were a few. The people who brought them to the attention of the CPSC were the emergency room doctors who were dealing with them.

The diabolical thing is that they're so interesting that kids are attracted to them.

Craig Zucker is an asshole. I realize his problem with selling a popular, profitable product, but they've been responsible for a couple of deaths. Too bad. You can't make a million dollars if a 6-year-old kid dies as a result. If somehow he manages to defy or stall the CPSC, he's going to get sued by the next parent whose kid winds up in the ER over them.

I can see Zucker being cross-examined: "You did know that several children had died from swallowing these buckeyballs, didn't you?"

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

The toy makers don't push back. The military industrial complex pushes back any time "defense" is threatened, even if that threat is only a slightly reduced order rate for naked scanners.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[OrangeTide]

slowly ramping up responsibility with kids is the normal way of things.

And kids should be able to make mistakes. And suffer some consequences, but not the same level of consequences for a younger kid versus a teenager versus an adult.

Generally our society feels that having a section of a child's bowel removed is too large of a consequence for a child.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

I'm outside the US. I didn't buy any specifically because of my children (I'm not trailer park trash), so I want to be able to order lots of them for cheap now that they are banned in the US. Zen Magnets appears to be shipping as regular (and claims to be higher quality). So just snap them up before the feds notice.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dahamma]

The 3 year old boy who ate a bunch of them isn't a dumb ass - as you say, the parent is. The 12 year old girl who tried to use them as a tongue stud and accidentally swallowed them... well, that one's not so clear...

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dahamma]

Rock dulls nail, condom covers rock, nail breaks condom!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pla]

The kids aren't dumb asses. Kids are kids. Young kids put things in their mouth, it's human nature. Dumb ass parents, and dumb ass owns of these magnets are why it happens.

So if parents ignore age rating on a goddamned dildo, can we sue the manufacturer for child sexual abuse?

At some point, it comes down to "don't be an idiot". If you buy your kids a gun and they blow their heads off - don't blame Remington, try a frickin' mirror.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[geekoid]

Better yet, a ban on idiots who don't read the facts of the case? also a ban on people who post these damn articles without any real facts in them.

This is ridiculous, and when a headline is ridiculous you should follow it to the source. Gather some fact.
The article is nothing but a set up baseless attack on Obama.
What has happened is the CPSC told the company that there are reports of injuries. Items like these should be marketed for "14 or older". The company labeled it 13+. The company could have simply change the labels on the new one being produced when the first found out, in 2009. The didn't in 2010, they didn't in 2011. The "Ban" is only on the ones labels 13+

For some reason, the company is stirring this into a much larger issue then it is,. Sine the company attacks Obama, I suspect Zucker did it intentionally. Why else wouldn't you change your label?

" This recall involves the Buckyballs® high powered magnets sets labeled "Ages 13+""

http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml10/10251.html

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Hentes]

I mean, I might believe he tought it was chocolate before swallowing the first one, but the other two means the kid was pretty dumb for a four year old. Still, there could be a compromise: put an age limit on the stuff. I don't see why it should be outright banned.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Hentes]

Maybe he doesn't live in America? This is an Internet store we are talking about.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[JDG1980]

Mod parent up. This is the most informative post so far.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Omestes]

The problem is that, if you have 2 of them, they don't pass through the intestine like the other stuff kids swallow.

So, I, an adult without any children and none planned, am not allowed to own them for this?

That makes sense...

How many children die from accidental gunshots in households where parents are too stupid to secure their weapons, but I can buy guns at the local Walmart? Oh, can't ban those... Shucks.

This is a stupid ban, no matter HOW nasty they are inside children. I feel bad for the kids, really, but there is no need to punish everyone else for it.

I can see Zucker being cross-examined: "You did know that several children had died from swallowing these buckeyballs, didn't you?"

So people would have the same reaction to any firearm manufacture right? I can picture P. James Debney (CEO of Smith and Wesson) in court "You did know several children have been accidentally shot, didn't you?".

My house has around 1000 things that are very dangerous to children (cleaners, knives, airsoft weapons, small parts and screws, cactuses, poisonous plants, solvents, magnets!, outlets, glass objects, plastic bags, gasoline, cigarettes, booze, lighters, other flammable liquids, R rated movies, metal music, a chainsaw, three or four machetes, a weed wacker, atheist propaganda, a Koran, the Communist Manifesto, and the complete works of Socrates/Plato), should I be expecting the police to swing by and arrest me for being "dangerous" soon?

EVERYTHING IS DANGEROUS. Ban it all.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dgatwood]

I couldn't disagree more. Buckyballs are not toys for kids. They're toys intended for adults, marketed for adults. Arguing that they should be banned because kids play with them and get hurt is just as nonsensical as arguing that the Ferrari should be banned because parents can give their five-year-olds the car keys and those kids can drive the car off a cliff. There is zero difference. Both are toys designed for adults, and clearly labeled as such.

These products already have prominent warning labels on their packages saying that these are dangerous when swallowed, and that they are not intended for children under 13 years of age. Most kids stop swallowing random objects by about age three, so that's a solid ten year safety margin. To the extent that some of them might have been sold prior to when that warning label was added, they should be held liable for any injuries resulting from those early sales. However, it is not the CPSC's responsibility to protect parents who are so clueless that they buy a product that is clearly marked for ages 13+ and give it to a two-year-old. The only way to achieve such a standard would be to ban all toys designed for children over three years of age. No sane person would say that this is a good idea.

As for younger kids getting their hands on them accidentally, it is the parents' responsibility to watch their kids, and to ensure that anything potentially dangerous is kept out of reach. You don't see people trying to ban household cleansers because kids can be killed by drinking them. You don't see people trying to ban all medications because kids can climb into the medicine cabinet and OD. And yet all of these are things that children of the very same age do. There really is absolutely no difference here. The products are properly labeled, so to the extent that there is a problem, in much the same way as we have poison control ads, the right solution is public service announcements to educate the public about the risks of kids swallowing magnets, not a ban on the products.

Oh, and more importantly, educate doctors, nurses, and poison control centers so that when you ask them if you should worry after a kid swallows one of these things, they immediately tell you to go count them and make damn sure the kid swallowed only one.

People trying to get products banned because of egregious misuse and abuse are what drives us rapidly towards being a nanny state in which anything interesting, useful, or fun is outlawed to protect us from our own stupidity. That isn't a world I want to live in.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Hentes]

Which is why responsible parents teach their children not to eat anything they find on the ground. Until the kid is old enough to understand that (about 2 years, otherwise the kid is slow), they require constant supervision.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Gaerek]

Last I checked, the 2nd amendment doesn't say:

"...and the right of the people to keep and play with Buckyballs shall not be infringed."

Banning the sales of ammo would be unconstitutional, regardless of any statistic. Banning of Buckballs (not that I agree) would be within the dubiously used "Commerce Clause"

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pedrop357]

Then they should have a talk with that child's parents.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pedrop357]

It's not his fault if a 6 year old dies. It's the fault of the parents for letting their 6 year old play with them.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Gaerek]

I agree, this isn't a case of "It's a dangerous product!" It's a case of parents who don't read warnings and let their kids have access to something that clearly isn't safe for them. According to a quick Google search in 2002, over 1 million children were hospitalized due to accidental poisoning, and in 2001, 96 were killed as a result. Following the lead of the Buckyball ban, let's ban all substances that can poison a child! http://www.preventinjury.org/PDFs/POISONING.pdf

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[labnet]

And how many Kids do you have?
We have three boys with Engineering and Lawyer parents. From 9 months to around 2 years old, putting random stuff in ones mouth is what kids do as a part of exploring their world. Who knows how much shit they swallow without us seeing it.
Thus shiny small smooth object would normally pass through the instestinal tract probabbly without the parent even knowing... but two objects highly magnetised can cause death.
Solution 1 is not to have them in the house, but that is difficult if they are being sold as kids toys at a toy store. Don't ban them, be make it illegal for them to be sold as kids toys.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[khallow]

So yeah, why are we outlawing magnets while letting any moron buy bullets?

The latter is constitutionally protected while the former isn't, at least as the US Supreme Court currently interprets the Constitution. I'd be interested in reasonable suggestions for ways to constitutionally restrict the federal government's overreach with commerce, but it seems pretty hard to do.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Nephilium]

Seriously... you're claiming that /. is in the tank for the red team?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Eponymous Hero]

you are genuinely fucking retarded. there is no ban, stupid. anyway, my comment about thinkgeek was based on the fact that the manufacturer is still selling them. the CPSC is only suing to ban. thinkgeek could have been smart and rejected their persuasion to stop selling, but they succumbed to pressure and maybe even believed the bullshit they were told (like you did).

http://www.komonews.com/news/consumer/Feds-act-to-stop-sale-of-magnetic-Buckyballs-163775816.html

The safety commission says the company refused to recall the product. On another front, the agency said it was able to persuade about 10 retailers, including Amazon.com, to stop selling Buckyballs....

If the administrative law judge rules in favor of the commission, then CPSC could compel Maxfield to stop the sale of its Buckyballs. But the company could appeal to the agency's four commissioners. It could also appeal in federal court. The commission typically negotiates product recalls with companies, and they usually work out an agreement.

persuade? that's not a federal ban. it's a suggestion, or more accurately, a manipulation, while they try to push their ban through the courts. and you're a tool. here, you want to buy some? ordering them is more effective than crying to the government. that way, you put money into the pockets of the company fighting the lawsuit while persisting the product's ubiquity. see how that works?

https://www.getbuckyballs.com/order/buckyballs/

Oh, you won't do that because it takes work, and it's hard..and besides you have all those new steam games to play.

you must be generalizing. i don't use the steam platform. and i prefer to work smarter, not harder.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[marcosdumay]

Can you name the parents that are stong arming the governemnt here? Because, you know, forcing a government to do something takes some work, and lots of media exposition.

The truth is that somebody once tought that it was import to "think of the children", and created a self sustaining bureocracy to do that. All the rest is consequence.

The blame isn't with either Democracy or the parents this time. It is an inplementation detail.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[similar_name]

You have to marvel at a society that can recognize the rights and responsibilities involved with gun ownership but bans the sale of a toy. Sort of like you can die for your country or be in a gang bang on camera at 18 but you can't have a beer.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Eponymous Hero]

they are not illegal to buy...yet. the retailers that have stopped selling have done so voluntarily under the influence of CPSC propaganda. the federal agency is taking the manufacturer to court to sue for their ban. it hasn't happened yet. but more's the better when it comes to spotlighting the brave companies who have not bowed down to this agency.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[TubeSteak]

Buckyballs and Buckycubes got banned because they're the only company that managed to muscle their way into the lucrative distribution channels that feed brick and mortar stores.

If this product was so wildly dangerous, the Consumer Product Safety Commission would be forcing all the other manufacturers of rare earth magnet toys to shut down as well.
Other manufacturers: nanodots, neocube, zen magnets/neoballs, cybercube, and the generics from china.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[The Rizz]

Banning the sales of ammo would be unconstitutional, regardless of any statistic.

So what you're saying is that someone needs to make a gun that shoots Buckyballs, and then we can buy them again?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[rmdingler]

Like those troglodyte children who ruined lead paint for the rest of us.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

I didn't wait, just placed my order for Zen now, before any ban might hit them. I'll just have to keep them locked up to make sure the children can't get them. The 3 year old doesn't usually put anything in his mouth, but you don't want death to come from a small exception to his usual rule.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[redizhot]

Well to be fair, if an ingredient in food is cancer causing or outright toxic, something needs to happen, there needs to be protocol.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[camperdave]

If the child is old enough and responsible enough to save up money and pay for their own toys, he/she is not within the group of children likely to die by these magnets.

That doesn't mean that the child doesn't have a sibling that might swallow them.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[milkmage]

"So people would have the same reaction to any firearm manufacture right?" ..well, check this shit out.
cop allowed to sue Glock.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Judge-allows-paralyzed-dad-to-sue-Glock-3732408.php ...by a Los Angeles policeman who was paralyzed from the waist down when his 3-year-old son shot him with his service pistol. ....Enrique Chavez claimed in his lawsuit that the Glock 21 lacked adequate safeguards against an accidental discharge because it had a light trigger pull and did not have a grip safety
ok - this is true. Glocks do not have a traditional safety that needs to be released before the trigger moves.
and put his son, Collin, in the back seat of his pickup truck to drop the boy off at his grandfather's house...
sounds tragic, right? wait -
Chavez had removed the child's car seat from the truck and had forgotten that he had left his Glock, which he always kept loaded, beneath the front seat, the court said. ...now Glock has to defend themselves against this moron.

go back to the beginning.. "son shot him with his service pistol."

SERVICE PISTOL. there's a reason LAPD picked Glock as their standard issue.. it's BECAUSE of the lack of traditional safeties and the light trigger pull.

he should sue LAPD for trusting him to carry a gun.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dark12222000]

It's called a right to bear arms. It's a right because it was considered necessary for the defense of our basic rights.

In addition, most gun related homicides stem from drug or gang violence - and a large percentage of those cases are using illegally obtained firearms.

Some of those "homicides" (depending on the statistic set you're using) may be self defense cases.

So, I'm going to argue that we shouldn't be banning magnets just because some kid is stupid enough to swallow one. I'm also going to argue that banning guns, opposed to banning Bucky balls, does more harm then good, if only because gun ownership does not correlate with homicide.. (Some recent numbers for you)

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[misexistentialist]

That involves childproofing the kid's home, not removing electrical sockets, ovens, medication, stairs etc. from the entire world.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sl149q]

From: https://www.getbuckyballs.com/order/buckyballs/

"You might have heard there's a problem with our products...
THIS IS NOT TRUE.
A government agency (the Consumer Product Safety Commission) is saying they should be recalled because children occasionally get ahold of them. This is unfair. We market exclusively to adults. We are vigorously defending our right to market these products you love. Let us know how you feel about this: Comment on Facebook; send a tweet; tell your friends; complain loudly; or just buy a set to stick it to the CPSC. Read more here."

See the part that says "exclusively to adults".

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sl149q]

To be fair they are banning all sorts of stuff that kids might swallow.

And the US Border patrol is quite vigorously keeping the stuff out: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/18/tourists-detained-on-way-home-from-vancouver-after-discovering-kinder-surprise-eggs-are-illegal-in-u-s/

So you may end up with some (hopefully still legal in Canada eh!) Buckyballs and get tossed in the slammer if you try and bring them with you into the US!

Now where is that URL, time to buy some one while you still can.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[flappinbooger]

How about a ban on stupid trailer-park dumbass kids who ruin it for the rest of us?

Hey, Govmint - Trade ya some Buckyballs fer some LAWN DARTS!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[PlusFiveTroll]

Places that take them off market when the government makes a suggestion that they should do so are probably only doing so to avoid litigation if some moron kills their kid with them.

Attourney "but you already had knowledge from the US government that buckynuts was dangerous, and little miss sally sue would be alive today if you followed it!"
Jury "Gasp"

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[qeveren]

Nah, it's stupid lazy-ass parents who can't be bothered actually supervising their children, but instead just shove them at something distracting so they can try to go about their pre-parenthood-responsibility lives.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dahamma]

So the 180 kids who were killed by someone misusing their parent's gun was due to drugs and the gun was illegally obtained? I'm sure you have a citation for that...

The point was that's 180 more kids than have actually died eating these magnets, so why in hell is one protected and not the other?

And if you sort the table in the article you mentioned by the key statistic, "homicide by firearm rate per 100,000 population", the US is #1 of all Western, non-3rd world countries. Comparing against a country with a civil war, roving bands of pirates, or where the government is the one doing the shooting is kind of pointless.

But anyway, automatic weapons were successfully banned in the US with no Constitutional override. Why not ban semi-automatic weapons as well? The founding fathers had to load their metal balls one at a time, which did a pretty good job of preventing mass murders and random crime-related homicides (you miss, and you lose).

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[NeveRBorN]

I say we ban H20 and all products containing it. According to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/HomeAndRecreationalSafety/Water-Safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html), an average of 3,533 people drowned each year between 2005 and 2009. Of those, one in five was "14 and younger". While I'm not sure how a child can be both 14 and younger at the same time, this is certainly a much larger issue.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[starworks5]

I remember wanting to know what a small leaf tasted like, and subsequently gagging and puking from it, I'm lucky it wasn't buckyballs instead.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[tofubeer]

Neither a 9 month old or a 2 year old should have access to them. Someone got me a set recently, my child would have been 8 or 9 at the time. I wasn't really happy about having them after reading the warning on the box. I played with them, he watched. He was allowed to play with them under supervision. Once they were forgotten about they went away and haven't come out since (except just now to check the warning on the box).

They are not sold as kids toys, go and read the website. I don't know where you would find them, I haven't seen them in Toys R Us for example.

If a parent chooses to buy a toy, marketed as an adult desktop toy, and they leave them where a young child has access to them it is clearly not the fault of the manufacturer.

It is too bad the manufacturer or the government cannot sue stupid people.

Also, how is it that an adult toy can get banned, but when a child of, say 5 years old, finds a loaded gun in their house and takes it to school and shoots another 5 year old with it there isn't a banning of guns? Neither the toy or the gun are marketed to children, and both can cause injury if used improperly.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[The Grim Reefer]

We have three boys with Engineering and Lawyer parents.

From: https://www.getbuckyballs.com/order/buckyballs/

"You might have heard there's a problem with our products... THIS IS NOT TRUE. A government agency (the Consumer Product Safety Commission) is saying they should be recalled because children occasionally get ahold of them. This is unfair. We market exclusively to adults. We are vigorously defending our right to market these products you love. Let us know how you feel about this: Comment on Facebook; send a tweet; tell your friends; complain loudly; or just buy a set to stick it to the CPSC. Read more here."

See the part that says "exclusively to adults".

Apparently at least one of those parents is not very good at their profession.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, I wasnt aware the text read anything to the effect that morons, or anyone, should be allowed to buy ammo.

Pretty sure the statement:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

doesn't say anything about ammunition, and the term "arms" is open to various contextual interpretations, including firearms.

You only hear an uproar when someone threatens to take away or restrict the guns.

Doesn't seem to specific about age either, however many gun laws DO restrict the right to bear arms dependent on conditions.

Not to mention laws not related to guns, restricting possession and sale or carriage of "arms" as suits the government of the day.

I'm sure that the passage will be reinterpreted again and again, perhaps eventually being removed for being a barrier to further control and oppression of the general people, or due to being any number of threats to government (and their corporate or religious masters) whim or desire from the people.

LOL.
I'm just a silly Canadian...what would I know (except how to read, which some of the more vocal american public are too lazy, or simply unable to do themselves).

Society everywhere is manipulated by corporate, government, religious and social groups to believe whatever the loudest majority is driving home as the tag line of the day.

On average, too many people simply accept what they are told and dont bother to form their own independant opinion based on facts, research, etc. even if that opinion does or does not align with the majority.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[The Grim Reefer]

I had lawn darts. Flying Death From Above is what we called them, and that's the way we liked it!

I still have a set of those. I keep want to get them out, but I'm too lazy to check if the state I live in has banned them being used, or just being sold.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

Yes, because as everyone agrees, the federal government should be in the business of picking and choosing which genes get passed on based on your biased opinion and pushing birth control and abortions onto the unworthy.

I'm sorry your quest to create an utopian super race of humans are being thwarted by those selfish religious nuts but hey, look on the bright side, government funding of planned parenthood was only a small portion of their overall budget so Margret Sanger's dream of Eugenics will still be somewhat in place.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[starburst]

According to Alive Past 5 .com

The Top Five Causes Of Unintentional Injury involving children:

1. Car Accidents: Kill 260,000 children a year and injure about 10 million children. They are the leading cause of death among children and a leading cause of child disability.
2. Drowning: Kills more than 175,000 children annually. Up to 3 million children each year survive a drowning incident. Due to brain damage in some survivors, nonfatal drowning has the highest average lifetime health and economic impact of any type of child injury.
3. Burns: Fire-related burns kill nearly 96,000 children a year.
4. Falls: Nearly 47,000 children fall to their deaths every year, but hundreds of thousands more children sustain serious injuries from a fall.
5. Poisoning: More than 45,000 children die each year from unintended poisoning.

Looks like there is a whole lot more that needs to be banned, or re-labeled. Think of the children.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

Automatic weapons are not banned. Whoever gave you that idea. I have two of them sitting beside me right now. Well, actually, they are locked in my gun safe but all you need to do is get a tax stamp for them. I suggest you stop imagining things and take a trip to the machine gun festival and see how many private citizens own fully auto weapons. You might be surprised to find that ordinary citizens can and do own explosives too.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[shutdown -p now]

Constitution is not a substitute for common sense.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[shutdown -p now]

Enact a constitutional amendment that would provide a strict definition of "interstate commerce" as only applying to deals where money or goods actually cross state borders.

Better yet, just throw it out altogether, and replace with a narrow restriction on states so that they cannot apply import fees (or equivalent) on out-of-state goods.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

And the democratic government looked at the wishes of the citezens and responded.

Actually, no it wasn't a democratic government that banned them. It was an agency under the executive which happens to be controlled by the democrats who like to be referred to as democratic but that isn't the same as a democratic government. There is no evidence to date that any elected official played any part in the issue of the ban. Certainly no act of congress has happened specifically to this.

I can understand the confusion though, the article says they will fight the ban that was issued by Obama's hand picked agency.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[prehistoricman5]

Wow those kinder eggs are considered illegal contraband? When I was younger my dad would bring back one for me and each of my siblings each time he traveled to europe for work.

Makes me feel proud of the US Border Patrol.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

All those things have common uses outside of being toys.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MHolmesIV]

Sorry, it's you who didn't read the facts here. This administrative action is against _all_ buckyballs, not just the old 13+ ones (which were fixed in 2010)

You're looking at 2 year old actions and assuming they relate to today's one, but they're only tangentially related.

Here's the press release about the current action: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml12/12234.html
You'll note that in this release they point out that in both the previous actions, the company was cooperative. That is also pointed out in the actual complaint here: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml12/12234.pdf

The founder's bizzarre political allegations aside, they are not being misleading about the CPSC complaint.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[cawpin]

Actually, Glocks don't have a particularly light trigger pull. The standard is about 5.5 pounds and LAPD may use the heavy NY1 trigger which is around 8 pounds. There is a light trigger as well at 3.5 pounds.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[jamstar7]

Statistics have shown that 100% of people without a gun have never shot anybody nor themselves.

If somebody chooses not to own a gun, I'm fine with that. Hey, their choice. It's when they choose to not own a gun and try to extend their choice to me that I have a problem. I choose to own guns. My choice, not yours.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Crypto Gnome]

It's called a right to bear arms. It's a right because it was considered necessary for the defense of our basic rights.

yes but you've all forgotten WHY you felt it was so important to have this RIGHT cast in stone for all eternity.

^ Hardy, p. 1237. "Early Americans wrote of the right in light of three considerations: (1) as auxiliary to a natural right of self-defense; (2) as enabling an armed people to deter undemocratic government; and (3) as enabling the people to organize a militia system."

(my BOLD)

Yet you passively stand by and let your leaders perpetrate the most abominable atrocities. (anyone for guantanamo?)

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Joe U]

Last I checked, the 2nd amendment doesn't say you can have all the guns and ammo you want either.

Read it, you have the right to join a well regulated armed militia.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[lister king of smeg]

i had toys with small pieces when my younger sister was at the stage where everything went in her mouth and i was told not to let her near them. i was also given a piece of plywood to put across the entrance to my door so she couldn't get to them when i was using them. i was also banned from using them in the same room as her without parental supervision. never had a problem. i don't see why there is issue here just keep out of reach of small children and dumb-ass's

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

There is no evidence to date that any elected official played any part in the issue of the ban.

Were any of the unelected employees of said organization appointed by an elected official?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

wow. mo0dded troll for pointing out the obvious. Perhaps someone is all but hurt about the obama comment. It was the article not me that said it....lol freedom of speech! fuck yeah.. ohh.. wait, not that speech, we don't agree with it.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

Can you name the parents that are stong arming the governemnt here?

Stephanie Thompson, for one. First hit on first google search. Did you even look, or are you just a (knee) jerk?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

At the time of the signing of the Constitution, less than 10% of the population was eligible to vote. That's what the founders thought of democracy.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[couchslug]

"So what you're saying is that someone needs to make a gun that shoots Buckyballs, and then we can buy them again?"

They already do!

A "T"-size steel shotgun pellet is about Buckyball size. I don't have a reloading press or any Buckyballs to load, but it would be interesting to shoot a few rounds loaded with nonmagnetic steel shot and compare their pattern on target to that of Buckyballs.

http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52612&stc=1&d=1318459735

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

I'm sure there are some, but again, there is no indication they played a role in this ban and appointees do not have to clear their actions through elected officials that may have appointed them. Now the elected official (in this case the executive) can direct certain things to happen, but again there is no indication that President Obama or any member of congress ordered the ban on the sale of these magnets.

The complaint is signed by the executive director who isn't an appointed official and the only other listings on it are subordinate attorneys.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MightyMartian]

I wasn't attempting to create an argument against the Second Amendment (despite what some pretty mentally retarded moderators think). What I'm saying is that there is a heavy dose of irony to banning the purchase, apparently by any means, of a toy that no one can in fact demonstrate a single documented fatality of, and meanwhile some lunatic can buy enough ammunition for an arsenal. The irony doesn't just cease to exist because of what amounts to an artificial legality in the Constitution. In some ways, it makes the absurdity of how various items, despite actual verifiable risk, can be regulated or not regulated. I think people should be able to own guns and Buckyball magnets and model airplanes and bleach and so on, providing they take the necessary precautions.

But hey, what do I know? Gun sales are way up in Colorado, so I'm assuming gun manufacturers and the NRA are toasting James Holmes as we speak.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MightyMartian]

And I want to own Buckyball magnets. It's my choice, not the government's. Seems like a tyranny to me. You're the gun owner, get out there and water the tree of Liberty with a little blood.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Lothsahn]

Wow, after reading the recall, this is SUPER stupid.

Personally, I don't think the government needs to be our nanny. But I at least understand the motivation of trying to keep things like these away from 2-3 year old because they like, yanno, eat them and it causes problems (even though there's only 2 documented cases).

The recall is this: Between March 2009 through March 2010, buckballs were sold labeled 13+. The federal law requires powerful magnets to be 14+. This was corrected in March 2010 when the magnets were labeled "keep away from all children".

So this recall protects all of those THIRTEEN year old children out there who might accidentally eat a buckyball because they didn't read the packaging. I'm sure that's, like, super common. Must. happen. a. lot.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[milkmage]

sorry.. comparatively.

Dual action SIGs and Beretta's have a trigger pull ~10lbs (for the first shot)

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MightyMartian]

I'm of the opinion that anyone proposing to ban anything do so with a noose around their neck.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[theArtificial]

The problem is that, if you have 2 of them, they don't pass through the intestine like the other stuff kids swallow. They pinch 2 sections of intestine together, crush them, and cause necrosis and blockage, and, like you said, perforation. The kids can die. They need fairly invasive surgery. There weren't too many deaths, but there were a few. The people who brought them to the attention of the CPSC were the emergency room doctors who were dealing with them.

Let me guess, let's blame Hungry Hungry Hippos or Crossfire for encouraging this behavior. WTF what were the parents doing while their children were gobbling these things down? And more importantly how did they get them?

Craig Zucker is an asshole.

Hardly unique to him. Unless you're trying to tie this to the poor victims digestive tract, no? Perhaps this is the beginning of a new Youtube Challenge akin to the ice and salt "challenge".

I realize his problem with selling a popular, profitable product, but they've been responsible for a couple of deaths. Too bad. You can't make a million dollars if a 6-year-old kid dies as a result.

You'll make more than a million! See Cigarettes, Alcohol, Cars, Hammers, Aspirin...

he's going to get sued by the next parent whose kid winds up in the ER over them ... I can see Zucker being cross-examined: "You did know that several children had died from swallowing these buckeyballs, didn't you?"

Why are we allowing the parents to side step the responsibility? You're supposed to supervise children. The product isn't even marketed at children. Turn that around "You allowed your child who nearly died to ingest powerful rare earth magnets because...?" Ages: Adults only (Keep away from all children). Anyone who provides these to children and cries foul is an idiot.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

Oh, and more importantly, educate doctors, nurses, and poison control centers so that when you ask them if you should worry after a kid swallows one of these things, they immediately tell you to go count them and make damn sure the kid swallowed only one.

You're going to educate doctors about what to do when a kid swallows these things? Doctors know more about this than you do, because they have to deal with the consequences, and that's why they wanted the CPSC to ban them.

The CPSC worked with Craig Zucker for almost a year now, in trying to develop warning labels and warn parents, and it didn't work.

Even if they're used as directed, you're giving them to 14-year-olds. You have to depend on 14-year-olds to be responsible enough not to let younger kids get at them. The results from the emergency rooms is that younger kids are getting them from older kids.

What are you going to do when a 6-year-old swallows one of these -- tell the 14-year-old he got it from that it's his fault because he should have been more responsible?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Creedo]

which allows the government to ball toys.

Yes, I know what you were trying to say, but, dammit, that just sounds funny.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

In the case of the infant who died, the parents were aware of the danger, they made sure the older children didn't play with the toys when the infant was around, and the infant still found the magnets and swallowed them somehow. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033101897.html

What are you going to say? "Gotcha! You weren't careful enough!"

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

crap.. I even previewed that too.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

In the case of the infant who died, it seems that the parents were aware of the danger of small objects and tried to keep the magnetic toy away from the infant. He got it anyway.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033101897.html It's impossible to keep small magnets away from young children even with the best efforts.

The Buckeyballs are marketed to 14-year-olds. Are you saying that 14-year-olds should be held responsible if younger children ingest them?

The only way to resolve this is in court. We'll see whether the jury thinks Zucker has any responsibility.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[mysidia]

That doesn't mean that the child doesn't have a sibling that might swallow them.

Right. The child might also take them to school, where they have less-intelligent peers, or they might accidentally leave them in an unsafe place without an appreciation for the danger. The magnets are not for children, period; The warning on their site is very clear about the product Keep away from all children.

Which I consider to (basically) be anyone under the age of 16.

If you cannot be trusted to keep and use these magnets safely and responsibly, then you don't belong behind the wheel of a car either.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[bky1701]

Hmmm, coilguns.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

Who are all responsible to their bosses, eventually up to an elected official, so any acts of that organization are the will of the people, theoretically.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[theArtificial]

It's impossible to keep small magnets away from young children even with the best efforts.

It is not. Buckyballs aren't ubiquitous. Honestly, if it's that big of a risk, why have them around babies/toddlers in the first place? These simply aren't for children.

The Buckeyballs are marketed to 14-year-olds.

Citations please? A Buckyballs 3rd party site states for Adults only, as does the GetBuckyBalls main site. AGoogle cache of Think Geek lists them as Adults Only.

Are you saying that 14-year-olds should be held responsible if younger children ingest them?

Way to put words in my mouth! I never mentioned anything about 14 year olds! But since you bring it up, did the hypothetical 14yo instruct the younger child(ren) to ingest them? If so, yes. Seriously though the responsibility for the well being of a child falls upon the parent. Are you arguing that it's not a parent's responsibility if a child does something out of sight then, like break someone's window? What if your child shoots up a school? the parents of two teenagers were sued after Columbine.

The only way to resolve this is in court. We'll see whether the jury thinks Zucker has any responsibility.

Curiously absent are the parents who weren't watching their snowflakes play hungry hungry hippos with something they're not supposed to have in the first place.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[SuricouRaven]

It's all very well talking about rebellion, but sooner or later it has to come down to shooting back at the cop who just came to arrest you for violating whatever law you consider unjust. Revolution doesn't happen that easily, and the people of the US are well-fed, well-entertained and not generally in fear for their lives.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[SuricouRaven]

Children under perhaps two years put everything in their mouths. These are not the target age of magnet toys.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Sperbels]

your country is fucking hilarious.

Sadly...yes.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[1u3hr]

If a parent chooses to buy a toy, marketed as an adult desktop toy, and they leave them where a young child has access to them it is clearly not the fault of the manufacturer.

No, it's not, and I don't think the government or anyone else (yet) is suing the manufacturer. They no doubt are labelling and marketing them as adult toys, they're covered, legally. However, the fact is that kids can and have played with them and some have swallowed them and needed surgery. Is allowing the sale, of a desk toy worth the risk to children? Does the divine right for a company to make a profit selling a time-wasting toy override all else?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[SuricouRaven]

Over here in the UK, and I believe some other parts of Europe, we already banned lighters that are easy to operate. There is some elaborate legal definition of 'easy.' We also banned novelty lighters, as they could be seen as appealing to children.

We are less terrified of pornography than the US though.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

So no child left behind, warrant-less wiretaps, NSA letters, the war in Iraq and/or Afghanistan as well as the coming war with Iran, the bank bailouts- all are the will of the people?

I see your point, I also see a large disconnect between political will and the will of the people. Furthermore, I seriously doubt any politician was consulted before this action happened.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[_Shad0w_]

If I had to trawl the stereotypes, I suspect the welfare trash group may also have a reasonable co-incidence with the group who support the Republican party's slightly more fundamentalist and nationalistic stand point on various issues.

Although that's my perception has a furrin type looking in. I'm an evil European social liberal and economic conservative, so they both look pretty fundamentalist and nationalistic to me.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Sqr(twg)]

It's a case of parents who don't read warnings and let their kids have access to something that clearly isn't safe for them.

Parents would probably read warnings if they were only displayed on products that are actually dangerous. In the US, for fear of lawsuits, everything comes with a long list of warnings. It's like the boy who cried wolf: Parents are trained to ignore warnings. (I once bought a toy for my three year old that was labeled "EU: Not suitable for children under 3. US: Not suitable for children under 5.")

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Omestes]

We are less terrified of pornography than the US though.

Which shows, with your vastly higher levels of sex crime... oh... nevermind.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

The Buckeyballs are marketed to 14-year-olds.

Citations please?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/federal-suit-targets-maker-of-buckyballs-magnets-citing-dangers-for-children/2012/07/25/gJQA1lDg9W_print.html

In May 2010, the company voluntarily recalled 175,000 Buckyball sets at the commission’s request because their labels said products were intended for ages 13 and older. Federal rules prohibit such loose magnets from being sold to kids younger than 14

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[HungryHobo]

"You weren't careful enough!"

yes. 100% yes. a thousand times yes. because it's true. their negligence killed their child.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sociocapitalist]

How about a ban on stupid trailer-park dumbass kids who ruin it for the rest of us?

Why is this insightful? It's not the kids, or even their parents that are banning this stuff. They're a vocal minority. It's a government that wants to nanny us 24 hours a day banning things like this. "For the children" is just another variant of "the public good". Various levels of government want to regulate... or outright ban... everything from the size of your soda to the ingredients in your food.

You're right - the ban on lead based paint should be removed as well and who cares if there's plastic in your milkshake, right? It's the consumer's responsibility to stay informed on safety, not the manufacturer!

Sometimes things should be banned.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

They are the will of the people. Bush was re-elected after NCLB and USA PATRIOT act, both of which he signed. Most of those voting for them in Congress were re-elected as well. If they were not the will of the people, why did the people continue to vote back in the people who created/signed them? Though, Bush did the bank and GM bailouts as a lame duck president, and thus didn't get reelected after, but so many things were done in the first term and he was re-elected. As were the Congressmen who voted for them.

That the people are dumb doesn't mean that it wasn't the will of the people. With all the media coverage and such, it was still citizens who walked into the booth and punched their hanging chad for Bush. Bush was the will of the people. Two more Terms! Two more Terms!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sociocapitalist]

I found a load of these on the ground in a park. Never mind how they got there, how do you expect children to read the warning which isn't present with these things?

Never mind that nail, rock, and used condom over there on the ground. What if someone's kid picks that up and tries to swallow it? Lets ban all that stuff!

No. How about you teach your kid common sense and save the entire world the trouble of looking after them for you? I'm not going to run around the world slapping warning labels on stuff for your kid that may not even be old enough to read yet.

"Don't childproof the world - worldproof the child."

Does it occur to you that a young child might not know what a condom is? That they might think it is a balloon, for example, and try and blow it up to inflate it?

You educate your kids the best possible and shit still happens, because they are kids and they aren't always going to be able to tell the difference between what's safe and what's not even when they've been well taught. On top of that, these toys might start with one child but be used by any number of them (ie a younger sibling or a visiting cousin, or be resold or donated to charity), who might not recognize the danger.

There's a point where a ban makes sense (ie the toys coming from China that had lead in the paint, for example).

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Lemmy Caution]

A lot of kids don't have a stay-at-home parent, and are stuck in crappy day-cares run by people who don't care, but are that can be afforded on the low wages that are available for them.

I hear a lot of sanctimonious claims about "lazy parents" and "bad parents" from people who either aren't parents, or who have a partner acting as a stay-at-home parent (the stay-at-home parents themselves don't make these claims too often.) Which are you?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[shentino]

Parents are still paramountly responsible for their children no matter WHO is doing the babysitting.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Fjandr]

Sadly, those who would improve society the most by using it aren't the ones who typically use it.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[mysidia]

And that legit supplier goes by the name eBay

According to the washington post: Ebay also agreed to take steps to remove listings of these items, according to the CPSC.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[penix1]

It is bad parenting. whether the parent is the biological one or a surrogate is irrelevant. In both cases the child needs to be removed from that environment.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Fjandr]

so why in hell is one protected and not the other?

I hope this is rhetorical.
If not, it's because nobody has convinced 2/3 of the House, 2/3 of the Senate, and somewhere between 50%+1 and 66%+1 of 3/4 of the State legislatures (depending on the State and their internal ratification threshold laws) that they're more dangerous than they're worth in civilian hands.

If that bothers you*, get out and do something about it. If you're* one who would rather ignore the process, don't come crying about arbitrary and capricious "enforcement" of whatever does or does not pass for "law" whenever the process is ignored for expediency.

*Just to be clear, this is a general "you," meaning anyone and everyone who reads the comment.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[L4t3r4lu5]

You might be surprised to find that ordinary citizens can and do own explosives too.

FPSRussia is an American, living in Georgia.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Fjandr]

I don't think codified restrictions in general would end up working correctly (barring, perhaps, some general guidelines of "absolutely do not engage in"), but the regulation of interstate commerce should be limited to a Federal body which exists to mediate disputes involving more than one State jurisdiction. Laws could be drafted to codify the results of particular outcomes, to prevent the need to revisit substantially similar cases (essentially how case law is used today, though in a somewhat different venue), but the Federal government should be prevented from using that power absent a dispute.

The States would never agree to the latter, as every State with a sales tax* has import duties on items and services purchased in States without sales tax (and they far outnumber those States in voting power) or from any jurisdiction outside the country regardless of whether taxes were paid on it. I've never bothered to dig to see if that's the result of explicit Federal approval or if they've simply never weighed in on the matter. I'm assuming the former though.

*Every one I'm aware of, anyway.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[L4t3r4lu5]

I read the story here

Stephanie Thompson is totally, utterly, and irrefutably responsible for the harm that came to her child. Look on the Buckyballs product page and you can see that the warning label printed on the lower right of the page is identical to the one on the left side of the product packaging.

Stephanie Thompson, you gave your child a dangerous item, not intended for use by children, and they were harmed. This is your fault. You are a bad parent.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[L4t3r4lu5]

My parents had a long garden as a kid. My brother and I used to put a ring the other end of the garden and tried to get the lawd dart into the hoop. As we got better at it, the hoops either got smaller, or were nested for points brackets.

Oddly enough, we never thought of throwing them towards each other. That seemed... Dangerous.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Spazztastic]

I honestly wonder what would happen if you filled a 12ga shotshell with buckyballs and put it through a single shot -- assuming you can even get the shell cambered without it snapping to the receiver.. If I had the cash to burn I'd do it in something smaller like a .410 shotgun.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[JamesSharman]

I dare not ask how you would fit Lizard and Spock into this scheme.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[gl4ss]

well, I'm pretty sure that the government isn't banning small magnet sales.

which kinda makes this a bad ban.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Charcharodon]

We don't need to have parents be active in kids lives what we really need is a re-introduction of large predatory cats in North America and Europe and make it illegal to drive your kids to school or for them to ride the bus.

Nature will work out most of our social problems in a decade or so and then we can shut down most of the government programs that keep these mouth breathers breeding and ruining it for the rest of us.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Charcharodon]

You can have my super industrial strength magnets only if you can manage to pry them off of my refridgerator.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Charcharodon]

And what exactly is wrong with NATURAL selection? It's 100% natural so that makes it good.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[michelcolman]

I've got an inflatable beach ball that says that it must only be used in shallow water. So we can't use it in our garden unless it's raining very hard.

Also, it must only be used under surveillance (do we have to get one of those CCTVs?), and we can't play with the ball unless there's at least one minor present, because "the minor must touch the bottom".

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Charcharodon]

And kids should be able to make mistakes. And suffer some consequences, but not the same level of consequences for a younger kid versus a teenager versus an adult.

That is what the parents are for. It is IMPOSSIBLE to Fisher Price the entire world by removing all the small parts and sharp corners.

Children die due to the ignorance and laziness of their parents. Sounds like natural selection is alive and well as it should be.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Charcharodon]

Holy Shit I just got the reference "First my beloved Viper fighter, now this".

I remember being so pissed because my mom turned my original ones in that could shoot the little red plastic piece to be replaced by the dumb ones that were retained.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[danbert8]

I've never done the experiment, but I have the feeling it would end with a magneticy powder... Magnets are generally pretty brittle.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[CCurzon]

How often does your unattended 2 year old go to the toy store? It's very easy not to have them in the house, just don't buy them.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[danbert8]

I just bought 750 of them today just to stick it to the government. If I don't get them soon, I'll have more than 125 blue balls...

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Yes, but with Buckyballs, the government may only be saving a tiny few, but is only kicking in the balls a tiny few -- the Buckyball people. Yey! Praise da heroes!!!1!11

Touching those other things clops hundreds of millions in the balls, and thus won't be done.

In one, they are trying to look like the hero, in the other like an ass. It's about show and politics.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[mhajicek]

Get them direct: https://www.getbuckyballs.com/order/buckyballs/

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Java Pimp]

It's not that simple. I have an 11 year old, 3 year old and 18 month old. The 11 year old is obviously allowed to have such toys. She is required however to make sure they are picked up and stored in her bedroom and has been told that if I find parts laying around that the younger ones could get a hold of I will throw them out without warning or even telling her about it. I have followed through on that many many times.

However, a few months ago when changing my son's diaper, I found he had swallowed and subsequently passed, a silicon button that was part of my daughter's iPod cover. One of these: http://amzn.com/B0086YLNVW Apparently one he saw laying around before I did.

I'm not saying that a ban on this toy is appropriate. I'm certain the packaging is appropriately labeled with age restrictions and warnings. It's just not as simple as "parents who don't read warnings".

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[somarilnos]

And this is why we can't have nice things.

Somewhere, in the third world, kids are playing with Buckyballs and Jarts that could no longer be sold here. And I bet the majority, who don't have punctured feet and magnets attaching to each other through the intestinal wall, are having more fun than we're allowed to have here.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[kbolino]

Somewhere between "injured kid" and "government regulation" lies "parental involvement," I guarantee you.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Ambiguous Puzuma]

Or K&J Magnetics, which (as you might guess from the name) just sells magnets. They provide detailed product specs along with explanations of the terms used.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Talderas]

1. Kids are no longer able to be transported in cars. They must now be transported in government approved child transport tanks.
2. Kids are no longer permitted within 50ft of any body of water deeper than 3 inches.
3. Kids are no longer permitted within 15ft of any object which can be hot enough to cause a burn.
4. Kids are no longer permitted to travel above 1 ft above sea level.
5. I... I have no idea how to fix #5.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Lurker2288]

Yes, because that's what Planned Parenthood is: the government forcing birth control and abortions on those deemed unworthy of procreation. All that stuff about women's healthcare and reproductive freedom is just window dressing.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[cayenne8]

hear a lot of sanctimonious claims about "lazy parents" and "bad parents" from people who either aren't parents, or who have a partner acting as a stay-at-home parent (the stay-at-home parents themselves don't make these claims too often.) Which are you?

Hey, don't have kids if you aren't equipped to support them financially, or responsibility/time wise....pretty simple, no?

Just because you can fuck, doesn't mean you could have kids if you can't spend the time to parent them or afford them....

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Compaqt]

I'd love to see the defense of the CPSC suit on a 2nd amendment basis, just for the sheer laugh factor.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[cayenne8]

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

There are two statements in that sentence...one about a well regulated militia....and one about the right of people (the general public) bearing arms.

It isn't saying that only people IN a militia can bear arms.....

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Compaqt]

>Pretty sure the statement:
>"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

>doesn't say anything about ammunition,

Yeah, and the 1st amendment protects free speech. But you're legally barred from buying pens, paper, or whatever else it is that you need to speak.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[luis_a_espinal]

How about a ban on stupid trailer-park dumbass kids who ruin it for the rest of us?

Yeah, because toddlers should know better.</stupid>

I could buy the argument that it is the parents' fault (and it is, for who the hell buys buckyball magnets with toddlers in the family.)

But to call kids "dumbass" while throwing a thinly veiled racial stereotype (trailer-park, really?) because they are taking away your toys, c'mon, grow the hell up.

Even worse, it is so pathetic that the post was modded as "insightful". What a bunch of emotionally stunted manboys.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Fatch Racall]

Really. Why do we always have to come back to uninformed people who, instead of actually finding real statistic and numbers, simply make an emotional decision on what's "right" and ignore the facts. UK has extremely strict gun laws. More per capita gun crime. Switzerland also has strict gun laws. Meaning that every citizen MUST own a gun, and keep it at their home. Nearly no crime.

Two cities in Illinois:
Morton Grove banned handguns except for police. Kennesaw passed a law requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. 25 years later(a few years ago), in total: Morton Grove's crime rate increased over 15%, while it's population decreased. Kennesaw's crime rate plummeted by over 50%, while it's population skyrocketed by about 500%.

lrn2resarch, sweetheart, instead of just making a decision and trying to justify it later.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Fatch Racall]

Also, I should point out, that article is missing some important factors. My reference to Switzerland is because technically, the male population are militia, and those specific guns they're issued are government, not civilian.
Many countries are missing from that list, also. For one thing, there's no UK. Also, I'll fully admit that some of my data was from a while ago, so it may have changed in recent years.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MrSenile]

I'm not saying that a ban on this toy is appropriate. I'm certain the packaging is appropriately labeled with age restrictions and warnings. It's just not as simple as "parents who don't read warnings".

No, but more times than not it tends to be 'parents who don't watch children'.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[tompaulco]

Hey, at least we know that it reality it takes at least a dozen dumbass kids now to ruin it for everyone else... The Onion pegged it at three [theonion.com], back in the day.
Apparently, as far as gas cans go, the number is 5. Biltz USA, which owned 75% of the portable gasoline container market, has been successfully sued out of existence. Most of the litigation involved the containers content catching fire when poured onto an open flame. Apparently, it was felt that the three existing warnings on the can were not sufficient to alert the public to the dangers of pouring gasoline on an open flame. So now, no more gas cans for us. When we run out of gas on the side of the road, we'll just have to leave our car there, or use some other container which is not approved for the transport of gasoline. Or we'll just have to buy them from China, where our pesky laws can't reach out and sue them.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[TheGoodNamesWereGone]

Fourthed. But I think there's more to this than meets the eye. The gubmint isn't rushing to ban tattoos and piercings despite the risks of infection and disease. Are these the same rare earth elements we're having a shortage of?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MrSenile]

Huh.

I remember asking my parents what leafs taste like, and them opening up the encyclopedia with me and looking for answers, ergo, helping me find my own answers. Why didn't I just put it in my mouth? Because before I learned to walk, I remember my parents repeatedly telling me to never put anything in my mouth that wasn't already recognized as belonging there.

I was able to understand that at the age of 2.

Maybe if parents actually spent time with their children and raised them instead of sitting them in-front of a TV or having their older siblings do their work for them, we'd not have as many 'child problems'. But no, the answer couldn't be as simple as that...

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[tompaulco]

Perhaps someone is all but hurt about the obama comment.
Yes, indeed, I am "all but hurt" about the Obama comment.
Obama fans, however, are "all butt hurt" about the comment.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pnutjam]

Why is it ok for the gov to pay childcare for people to work low wage jobs? I have no problem with a mother collecting welfare to stay home with their children. I think it is a net gain for society.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pnutjam]

As a parent of 5, let me stick up for javapimp.
Kids need freedom, even infants need to crawl around and examine things. This is how they learn. I try to encourage the child scientist, but many people are ok with snuffing it out and forcing a strict regiment of dance, music lessons, homework, bed.

Raising kids is tough, your first (or only for some) is a record of every mistake you make as a parent. With every subsequent child you do better, but the chaotic input from older siblings becomes greater.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pnutjam]

So you need a non-ferrous barrel. Like a brass cannon.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Phasma Felis]

Bleach also kills kids who swallow it. Should we ban bleach? Are people who sell bleach child-killing assholes?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pnutjam]

I cut down, my parents had 8.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Zocalo]

"Dumbass kids" was the tone of The Onion story, but yes, a toddler accidentally swallowing a magnet having put it in their mouth on the off-chance that it might be tasty is just a toddler doing what they do, if there are any dumbasses in that situation it's the parents for leaving the magnets lying around. Or maybe they just got careless that one time - it happens. That's a little different from one example of a "kid" who is old enough to consider using a pair of these magnets as an alternative to getting a piercing intended for providing an enhanced oral sex experience without considering the likely consequences ("gee, it can be really hard to separate these magnets!") is a dumbass, pure and simple.

Then again, what's the point of being a child if you spend all of your youth wrapped up in cotton wool and never get to be a dumbass every now and again?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[travisbean]

It's not the size that's a problem. There's plenty of small size parts out there. Most kids will eat them pass them fine. What's unique about Buckey balls is when you swallow two or more of them. They attract to each other pinching some vital organ wall in the process, causing the flesh to die or tear resulting in at best major surgery at worst death. My kid could swallow all the marbles they want maybe even a few small muntion rounds and come out of it better. I thought about getting myself a set, and held off when I read these reports. Even then I can't prevent my toddler (who puts everything in their mouth) from encountering them elsewhere, at a relative's house, in a park where some kid dropped them, etc. So as a parent of small children, I see this as pretty unique case, and would gladly give up my freedom of buying them, if it lessens the chances that fewer to no kids have to suffer through an ingestion of them. I grew up fine without Jarts.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Marxist Hacker 42]

If they actually succeeded, that would deprive them of even more future voters (because, after all, for the Republican Party, abortion is just a way to get poor white pro-life folks to vote for tax breaks for billionaires).

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Religion is a middle class value. Poor people can't afford it usually.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[jahudabudy]

It's true that welfare types tend to vote Republican, at least in federal elections. It's quite easy to find both how a state voted in the last presidential election AND the amount of Federal dollars it receives in aid. The states that receive more Federal aid tend to vote Republican. Cause/effect or correlation, who can say? It's worth noting both of these tend to to correlate to poor national rankings on education, less population density (i.e. more rural populations) and a perception of being more religious (I'm unaware of any actual data one could use to verify this perception).

Less easy to find, or at least to compile for each state, is local election trends. I know, for instance, that NC tends to vote Republican in Federal elections (Obama being the first Democrat to receive NC's electoral votes since the Civil Rights Act). However, governor and state legislature tends to lean Democrat (oddly enough, legislature swung Republican at the same time we voted for Obama). I don't know if NC is unusual in this manner, or if categorizing the states as Red vs. Blue is far more complex than the media tends to make it (neither would actually surprise me).

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[purelaborja]

Hate to tell you, It is the rich ones that caused this. Trailer park people don't have the high priced lawyers. Most trailer park kids understand that if you are stupid it hurts. Rich asses don't, They sue because Johnny is retarded and we have to make the world safe for them.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Tastecicles]

I tried this, just forgot about the coil... had the BB at the base of a pair of bare wires... now there's a hole in the planet. Mars.

I think I just invented a man-portable railgun...

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[purelaborja]

The issue is the parents. Your parents would be labeled because you were allowed to separate from your sister. The law now is protect the retards and they rule the playground. I grew up with BB guns and when I got hit in the forehead my dad said should have kept your head down. We had lawn darts, a trampoline without sides and many other "unsafe" toys. The smart ones lived the others well lets just say a few idiots never got to vote.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[BorgAssimilator]

5. I... I have no idea how to fix #5.

Simple! Don't let them eat anything!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[jamstar7]

And I want to own Buckyball magnets. It's my choice, not the government's. Seems like a tyranny to me. You're the gun owner, get out there and water the tree of Liberty with a little blood.

Howbout doing it the American way? You can google up a source and buy them there. No need to pull out a gun. I'm going to assume you won't put them in your nose or mouth, or swallow them.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

The CPSC and other regulators did studies of bleach and other toxic household compounds, to find out the most effective ways to stop kids from swallowing them. They worked with the industry, and they studied the way consumers actually use the products to figure out ways of preventing kids from swallowing bleach. They developed new safety caps which made it difficult for kids to open bleach bottles, while not greatly inconveniencing adults who have to use them. They were very successful, and reduced the number of ingestions by half. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ParentingResourceCenter/household-cleaning-products-pose-poisoning-risk-kids/story?id=11305919#.UBF4U1KVr5w This is basic engineering.

Yes, people who wanted to sell bleach without childproof caps are assholes.

30 years ago, it was very common for toddlers to swallow lye. If they survived, this caused devastating injuries. Can you imagine what it's like for a kid to have his esophagus burned out, and not be able to eat or talk? The CPSC made them put childproof caps on the cans of lye, and they changed the formula. You don't need 100% lye to clear a drain. You have to dilute it anyway. Now it's a relatively rare injury.

What kind of asshole says, "I don't care if 10,000 kids every year swallow lye, and the government can prevent it. It's the parents' responsibility, and even though we can stop it, I don't want to." (Maybe Gordon Crovitz or somebody on the Wall Street Journal editorial page.)

I've talked to government regulators, in the electrical industry, the printing industry, and the chemical processing industry. They're not the arbitrary bureaucrats of Ayn Rand fantasies. They're reasonable people, who have often worked in business themselves and understand the realities of running a business. They try to work with industry and find reasonable compromises that will satisfy everybody. I remember a meeting where some guys from the New York State Department of Environmental Protection were explaining the new toxic waste regulations to a bunch of printers. They said, "We're not going to put you out of business. We don't want to impose unreasonable costs. We'll give you plenty of time and free technical advice. We just can't let you pour chlorinated hydrocarbons into the water supply."

I wonder what you would say if you had a kid who died or had a life-changing injury because you negligently allowed him to be harmed by a consumer product. Because of the government regulators who saved you from your own stupidity, I fortunately won't find out. (Unless you own a gun.)

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Lemmy Caution]

I think in the net scheme of things, it is less of an infringement on human freedom to regulate what can be sold as a toy than it is to set up an apparatus that intervenes when parents don't distinguish which things marketed as toys really are toys for kids and which ones aren't, and then removes children from the families that don't, and then raises those children elsewhere under government oversight.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[arth1]

You are labeled as a Troll for legitimate reasons;

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, was a huge proponent of eugenics, and also spoke at KKK rallies about racial purification.
So this bastion of liberal empowerment was founded by a woman that felt black people were undesirable, and that society could be fixed by aborting the hell out of it, based upon things like how you looked and social status.

If the views of the founder is so important, then surely the Boy Scout movement should be shunned just as much, if not more. Baden-Powell wasn't exactly Martin Luther King Jr.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pixelpusher220]

You sir, are an Infoxicated idiot. Planned Parenthood exists not because people choose not to go to a doctor, but because they can't afford insurance or that there are no doctors willing to risk being killed who provide that service.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pixelpusher220]

You really don't see the problem in having 10 kids when you live in poverty? It's a guarantee you will 'stay' in poverty. Abortions and birth control fix that problem and all people the chance to lift themselves out of it.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[PoopMonkey]

A lot of humans did die out from eating things that they shouldn't have. We learned not to do that. So yes, it is human nature to do it. What's also human nature, however, is for a parent to stop their child from doing it since other dead humans have showed us to not do it. Continued human nature means that the parent might be looking away for half a second, which is all it will take for their child to eat something they shouldn't.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dgatwood]

You're going to educate doctors about what to do when a kid swallows these things? Doctors know more about this than you do, because they have to deal with the consequences, and that's why they wanted the CPSC to ban them.

Doctors collectively, sure, but not necessarily every doctor. It only takes one person not knowing about the seriousness of the situation to make the problem worse by not scheduling surgery immediately.

What are you going to do when a 6-year-old swallows one of these

Nothing. They're only dangerous if you swallow two or more.

Even if they're used as directed, you're giving them to 14-year-olds. You have to depend on 14-year-olds to be responsible enough not to let younger kids get at them. The results from the emergency rooms is that younger kids are getting them from older kids.

And still, this is not an education problem why? If a young child gets the car keys from a 14-year-old and manages to put the thing in neutral and roll it down a hill onto a freeway, most rational people would blame the 14-year-old. How is it that you're still blaming the car?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[MrSenile]

I'm not disagreeing that a free-form environment nourishes children's growth, what I am disagreeing with is the fact that free-form does not equate to un-monitored.

Too many parents today frankly don't watch their children which ultimately equates to them getting into places or into things that they shouldn't be.

So, sure, I'm all for letting that infant crawl around unheeded and explore and discover. But would you allow them into the cat litter, eating the cat poop? Maybe open the door and let them crawl into traffic? After all, that's freedom of exploration, right?

A parent has to know what limits to place on exactly what is 'freedom' for a child to explore. They have no boundries. It's the parent to provide them to the child in a safe and comfortable environment. It's about time parents do so and stop pushing that responsibility on TV or their older children.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dgatwood]

You lock up the cabinets where you keep household cleansers, right? How is a box of these magnets any different than a bottle of bleach? Both are harmless when used correctly, yet both can kill a small child if ingested.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[arth1]

That doesn't mean that the child doesn't have a sibling that might swallow them.

(I'm trying to suppress the mental image of children swallowing their siblings.)

That's why the age limit is 14+. Younger children, even if they are able to play responsibly with the toy itself, may not be responsible enough to keep them away from younger children. The GP who thought it was fine to give to an 11 year old, knowing that there are younger children in the household is irresponsible.
The manufacturer isn't. They tell you.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

This is a matter of settled law. Juries and judges don't agree with you.

Craig Zucker is going to get his ass sued, and when the juries see the smart-alec comments he's been posting on his web site, they're going to award enough damages to shut down his business. Which is the way product liability should work.

And we'll see what the CPSC does to him for violating their order.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[mcgrew]

looks like these magnets are letting nature put a little chlorine in the gene pool by having stupid kids remove themselves from it

Is that a flamebait, or are you trying to be funny? Let me educate you, son.

1. ALL young childern put things in their mouths. It comes from millions of years of evolution, not the kid's stupidity. I see you have never had children.
2. Most mental retardation is not hereditary
3. My oldest daughter had a hard childbirtth and is learning disabled, you insensitive clod (my youngest is gifted). So go take yourself out of the fucking gene pool, asshole, we need to get rid of heartless bastards like you.

I hope I've made my point, fuckweed.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dgatwood]

This is a matter of settled law. Juries and judges don't agree with you.

Citation needed. To the best of my knowledge, the opposite is true. Product liability law requires clear labeling of toys, precisely because not all toys are appropriate to have around small children.

Dart sets, air rifles, go-karts, balloons, Easy-Bake ovens, anything with parts of the right size to cause choking, anything wrapped in a plastic bag—these are all examples of products that are intended for adults or older children that are legal to sell because they're clearly marketed as such, but that could cause serious injuries (and in some cases, even death) in the hands of small children. How can you justify targeting a single product that meets those criteria while allowing all the rest? Or are you arguing that we have to live in a padded world with no risks?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[RockDoctor]

It's probably the children of rich, inattentive, gated-community parents who're going to sue ; the law suits are what will be triggering this.

Poor people can't afford to sue, and can be brought off much more cheaply.

I say bring back the death penalty for illegal-immigrant maids who are inattentive enough to allow this to happen. That will make sure that the blame attaches in the right place. If they're dead, then the next maid to work for a pittance (and no health insurance, of course) will know that doing six things at once is not enough, she'll have to watch the kids too. Or bring along a child of her own for the employer's kids to vivisect.

(Your sarcasm-meter ought to be registering now.)

Oh, and shoot ambulance-chasing lawyers on sight - fit automated machine guns in the tail pipes of ambulances. Them and their "no-win-no-fee" deals are crushing the spirit of free enterprise.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AntEater]

I had lawn darts. Flying Death From Above is what we called them, and that's the way we liked it!

Yeah! We attached some twine to the back end of the darts so we could spin and release them to even greater heights. It was hard to pull out of the ground at times. What could possibly go wrong?

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Fned]

Wow those kinder eggs are considered illegal contraband?

Yes. Apparently, our precious little Honey-Boo-Boo kinderspamhogs can't be trusted not to scarf them down with the toy still inside and choke to death.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[OrangeTide]

Yea, I've seen kids old enough to know better (over 8 years old) still manage to put things in their mouth. Kids who are otherwise intelligent (and get good marks in school). It's pretty normal for them to still have a little oral fixation, especially when stressed out.

Your blanket statements that kids over 2 should understand [and obey] and if they don't, they need constant supervision clearly demonstrates your unrealistic position.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[OrangeTide]

I don't accept the premise of the analogy.

It's simple, kids play with things and eventually stick them in their mouth. Not just infants, but kids who should know better (and deserve to be scolded).

Also it is common for infants to gain access to an old kid's toys. I remember the horror of my little sister turning blueish-gray with a suction cup from one of my toys lodged in her throat.

I don't like having a nanny state. A rule to protect every idiot and every child (often the same thing). But maybe if people quit acting like idiots I would be more open to them having freedom of choice.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[OrangeTide]

Parents cannot do everything. Your position is unrealistic.

Also I am handing your strawman back to you. I did not suggest we child proof the world. Because that is obviously unrealistic, as unrealistic as parents watching their children every second of every day.

Children also die because of improper use of fad toys.

ps - if our society really cared about child safety we'd ban swimming pools. Those actually kill kids instead of simply screwing up their guts.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

This is a matter of settled law. Juries and judges don't agree with you.

Citation needed.

http://store.westlaw.com/products-liability-design-manufacturing-defects-2011-2012/181671/13975067/productdetail

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[ninti]

Is it time for the admins of Slashdot to realize their moderation system doesn't really work all that well anymore? The fact that this completely incorect post is rated at 5 shows that it doesn't.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dahamma]

They are banned by FOPA, but those manufactured before 1986 were grandfathered. It is illegal for a private citizen to own any automatic weapon manufactured and registered after that date, or convert a semi-automatic weapon to automatic.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dahamma]

Why do we always have to come back to uninformed people who, instead of actually finding real statistic and numbers, simply make an emotional decision on what's "right" and ignore the facts.

Really. YOU JUST DID EXACTLY THAT.

UK has extremely strict gun laws. More per capita gun crime. Switzerland also has strict gun laws. Meaning that every citizen MUST own a gun, and keep it at their home. Nearly no crime.

Firearm homicide rate per 100,000 citizens:
US: 2.97
Switzerland: 0.56
England: 0.12

I always wondered why among European countries Switzerland's firearm homicide was so disproportionately high... you answered that for me, thanks.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pixelpusher220]

How about you live in the real world. 'Just say no' doesn't work, never has, especially for sex.

Wow... how selfish. "Go ahead and kill your kids, because after all, you deserve a new flat screen TV".

How about give them the ability to plan their families so they can go to, hell just finish, school and get a job to actually buy that TV themselves? Or are you that selfish you don't want anyone else getting ahead?

And who said they had to get abortions, BIRTH CONTROL prevents said 'murder' just as well and Planned Parenthood provides that.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dahamma]

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"

The founding fathers weren't trying to ensure the people would be set up to overthrow the government, they wanted citizens to be armed because the US did not *have* a standing army at that time. Independence was won largely through the militia, and they wanted to preserve the freedom they just won. Of course there are other interpretations, but that one is as good as any and better than some...

The US now has a massive professional military and an extensive National Guard. Despite what you might think "Red Dawn" is not a realistic movie.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

I think you are a bit delusional or confused.

First, the president can only serve two terms. Perhaps you mean 4 more years, Second, we do not have a democracy, we have a constitutional republic and there is no requirement for elected officials to do the will of the people. Third, often voting for one candidate is not always an endorsement of them, it's a rejection of the other candidates. In that case, no will of that or those people would be served outside of not electing the other person. Bush got elected to a second term because John Kerry was a giant douche who couldn't energize the public with a tesla coil and a stun gun. It's the same reason it seems that Obama will get a second term.

Finally, I was being facetious about those unpopular programs that had more people against them then for them. Elections are often decided on one or two important issues and not all of the situations that crop up. WE do not have a democracy- remember. But none of that is important as the situation at hand was created underlings at an appointed department that is supposed to operate independent from the government by law. Even if you can somehow muscle ultimate executive responsibility into some purposeful act by the elected officials who never considered the facts and circumstances before the offensive action, we are still presented with the supposed autonomy from government in this situation which implies a separate regardless of what you think.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[w3dg]

Before you get all huffy puffy, the real retardation here are the parents who buy their kids these things... It's not the kids, but the parents. So... I don't get why everybody is saying the kids are at fault here. I think you'd have been better off stating what I stated. Yet, this is not on the news about bad parenting. Hmm.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dgatwood]

That's not a citation. That's a book of thousands of cases, and in all likelihood none of them are relevant case law, given the nature of the product in question. Show me one instance where all of the following are true:

• The product was intended for use by adults.
• It was unsafe for use by small children.
• The reason it was unsafe for small children was not due to a trivial flaw in construction or design that could easily be rectified (e.g. kids choking on a knob that should have been fastened on better), but rather was an inherent property of the product.
• The product's labeling clearly indicated that the product was unsafe for children.
• The product could fairly easily be kept away from small children (as opposed to lawn darts, which tend to fall where they want to fall).
• The product was banned anyway even though there were zero reports of deaths attributed to the product.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

I can't write a law review article for you. There are dozens of cases that would be relevant to a situation like this. You can't always find a case that's exactly on point, but the classic product liability cases would form an envelope that the Buckeyball cases, as reported to the CPSC, would fall within.

Magnetic Buckeyballs don't have an useful function, and seem to be inherently unsafe. Every effort over several years by the manufacturer, the CPSC, and public health agencies were unable to prevent children from swallowing them.

In many of the cases reported to the CPSC http://www.saferproducts.gov/Search/Result.aspx?cid=14858&dm=1&pcid=95&srt=0 the parents didn't know anything about the Buckeyballs. Often one child gave the Buckeyballs to another child. Sometimes an infant found the balls despite an effort by the parent to keep them away.

You can never tell how a jury is going to decide, but they're sympathetic to injured children, and they're not sympathetic to a manufacturer who knew that a certain number of people would be harmed. Zucker is a plaintiff lawyer's dream. He insists on continuing to sell them when the CPSC told him to stop, which will destroy him in court. They actually wrote on their web site, "buy a set to stick it to the CPSC."

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[arth1]

Planned Parenthood is an abortion mill.

You're saying that as if it were a bad thing.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Joe U]

No, it's saying you need a well regulated militia, you can join it and it can be armed. It's pretty obvious, otherwise they would have just said "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." and skipped the whole militia part.

They didn't get paid by the word, the line about a militia is there for a reason.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[lister king of smeg]

sorry about that my auto correct said i was wrong and i went with it.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[pnutjam]

I agree, kids need supervision. For what it's worth, I do supervise my kids. I see 5 year old kids tasked with watching their 3 year old sibling and I cringe. When I am outside with my kids, the neighborhood children are more interested in bothering me then playing, because the crave adult attention and they aren't getting it at home.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dgatwood]

But magnetic Buckyballs are not inherently unsafe. They are inherently unsafe for small children. Same as darts, marbles, balloons, plastic bags inside products, gumballs, and hundreds of other things that have no real utility. Targeting this one product while not banning all of those other products I listed above is a clear example of a double standard.

The CPSC is wrong. There's no grey area here. The product is plainly labeled. I present to you Exhibit A. As you can plainly see, almost half of one side of the box is a giant warning label telling people:

Keep Away From All Children!!
Do not put in nose or mouth.
Swallowed magnets can stick to
intestines causing serious injury or death.
Seek immediate medical attention if
magnets are swallowed or inhaled.

I'm sorry, but you really can't get much more clear than that. If the parents truly did not know about this risk, then they were grossly negligent in their use of the product. Period. Countless legal cases have upheld the principle that a manufacturer cannot be held responsible for harm caused when a product is used in a grossly negligent way. I can't believe you're seriously arguing to the contrary.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[nbauman]

I've talked to a lot of lawyers about this. People think they know what the law is, they're sure about it, it looks obvious, they go to court, and lose. That's what will probably happen to Zucker.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[KingAlanI]

The store operating in the US would still have to follow US law

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

That's why she's demanding the government do something. She nearly killed her child. But *always* blame someone else. So she blames the government and Buckyball for her error.

Whether she's an idiot who shouldn't have been allowed to have children, she's still a strong advocate, and that was what the question was about. Bad parents blame everyone but themselves.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

I think you are a bit delusional or confused. First, the president can only serve two terms. Perhaps you mean 4 more years

Reading isn't just about sounding out the words. You are supposed to understand the combination.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[mcgrew]

Yes, that was pretty much my point. Parents should know that kids put stuff in their mouths, and should keep anything that might choke them out of reach. But some people are just bad parents, period.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[dgatwood]

That's almost invariably a sign of either bad laws or bad judges setting bad precedents. Just saying.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

You were the one that made the explicit and incorrect statement that created a false dichotomy of "delusional" or "confused". Everyone else may have known, but you obviously didn't.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[AK Marc]

No, you are so interested in arguing that you aren't even bothering to understand what you are objecting to. I'm right. You are wrong. But you don't even know what it is that I think I'm right about, as you reflect arguments I've never made.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[sumdumass]

ha.. I'm arguing that your fallacy about the will of the people is ridiculous. The connection simply isn't there. The consumer product safety commission is not like the state department or the justice department and so on.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Paracelcus]

You are assuming that they can read, you may be expecting too much!

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Based on this, and your previous "kill your kids" post, I can only say that you're a fool. And a liar. And a fool. And a liar. Do society a favor. Put a gun in your mouth.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dahamma]

Oh, and I didn't even point out that your other "facts" are wrong, as well.

Trivially looking up statistics shows Morton Grove had a population increase, not decline, over that period, and their crime rate is so low (it's a very upscale community) that "a 15% increase" would likely be statistically insignificant even if it were true. And Morton Grove repealed the ban in 2008. Want to see the *actual* statistics, not your made up ones?

Violent crime index in 2010
Morton Grove: 32.7
U.S. Average: 222.7

Violent crime index in 2009
Morton Grove: 39.2
U.S. Average: 238.0

Violent crime index in 2008
Morton Grove: 32.3
U.S. Average: 252.4

Violent crime index in 2007
Morton Grove: 18.5
U.S. Average: 259.7

Violent crime index in 2006
Morton Grove: 25.7
U.S. Average: 264.1

Violent crime index in 2005
Morton Grove: 23.2
U.S. Average: 258.9

So it went UP after the repeal - which is ALSO not very significant based on the variation year to year and the fact that it's very low compared to the national average already.

And for your other "fact" - Kennesaw isn't even in Illinois, it's in Georgia.

Funny thing about all this is that I am not even anti-gun ownership, anyway (though I am in favor of more regulation). My original point was that it's absurd how much the government can become a nanny state about a "toy' meant for adults that has not been shown to cause a single actual death, while staying far away from other areas that cause many child deaths per year. It's "safety theater" because no one cares to stand up for the toy manufacturer.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[Dr_Barnowl]

You'd think the same about lottery tickets and cigarettes ; they're both expensive and detrimental, but it's the poor people who indulge in them the most, because the middle class folks tend to have the education to understand their bad side, and less of the angst that leads to their consumption.

Re:First my beloved Viper fighter, now this

[logical_failure]

Wow, how tolerant of you, Mr. Liberal.

My stockpiling has paid off!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks to Woot! I now own several million Buckyball magnets. I was waiting for the rare Earth metal market to skyrocket before cashing in, but this may be my chance. Hello Ebay!

Re:My stockpiling has paid off!

[DarwinSurvivor]

Now you just have to figure out how to separate them from the metal table.

Re: My stockpiling has paid off!

[cdmsr]

Save the righteous indignation: the headline is bullshit. Nothing is banned. This is a simple recall of the magnets sold prior to 2010 when the package listed the wrong allowable age (13 instead of 14). The problem was solved by dropping the age and stating simply "Keep Away From Children." 'geekoid' provided the following link deep into the comments. I reproduce it here to prevent a rash of apoplectic strokes and unwarrented rightwing crowing: http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml10/10251.html [cpsc.gov]

Seriously

[Anonymous Coward]

What's so special about these magnets?
Children can swallow any kind of magnet you find in toys.
It should be up to the parents to ensure the child is old enough not to swallow the damn thing.
Next up: crayons banned because kids stick them up their nose.

Re:Seriously

[stanlyb]

It is not the balls, nor the kids. Even if you swallow some balls, but not at once, you will need to go to the surgery. The problem as i see it, is stupid grown people buying bucky balls and giving them to their kids, who, SURPRISE, swallow them.

Re:Seriously

[bennomatic]

These are small and unusually powerful magnets. Swallow one, and then another a half-hour later (or any time before passing the first), and they will pull together, pinching your internal organs, and they'll never come out without invasive surgery.

A normal magnet, if swallowed, will just pass. And if it's big enough to have the same pull that these rare earth magnets have, it'll be uncomfortable enough during the swallowing that most kids won't do it twice, so that pinching thing likely won't happen.

Re:Seriously

[Lehk228]

it's not that they don't come out that makes them dangerous, when they pinch they kill and destroy intestinal tissue, allowing gut/fecal bacteria into the blood

Re:Seriously

[lothos]

posting to undo an incorrect moderation, sorry bout that.

Re:Seriously

[bennomatic]

I disagree. Exposing children who couldn't possibly know better to dangers which are not at all obvious is more like random acts of violence than natural selection. That's like saying getting hit by a drunk driver is natural selection.

And I can guess at least one counter-argument: if the parents are stupid enough to give their kid a dangerous toy, then their progeny should be taken out of the gene pool. Well, it's not that simple: there are friends, extended family, babysitters, daycare, and more potential sources of dangerous toys. As long as a dangerous toy is sold as a toy, it's possible that your kid, through no fault of your own, could be exposed to them.

It's a lot of things, but natural selection it's not.

Re:Seriously

[bennomatic]

Very true. For some reason, I felt while I was writing my post that this was implicit, but it wasn't. I appreciate the complementary post!

Re:Seriously

[bennomatic]

If it's not a troll, it's certainly juvenile. Yeah, I once had a "Kill 'em all! Let God sort 'em out!" t-shirt, but I was 13 years old at the time.

Re:Seriously

[bennomatic]

So are you for regulation or not? If so, why are warning labels OK but not pure prohibition against selling as a toy? You'll still be able to buy these at science lab supply shops. Why do they need to be sold as toys?

Re:Seriously

[Charcharodon]

Here are the magnets we should let kids play with. If they manage to hurt themselves by swallowing one of these the goverment should swoop in and sterilize their entire family.

http://www.tmcmagnetics.com/cow_magnets.html

Re:Seriously

[thirdender]

This: http://youtu.be/1qWHDsjMCGo :-p

Re:Seriously

[arth1]

And I can guess at least one counter-argument: if the parents are stupid enough to give their kid a dangerous toy, then their progeny should be taken out of the gene pool. Well, it's not that simple: there are friends, extended family, babysitters, daycare, and more potential sources of dangerous toys. As long as a dangerous toy is sold as a toy, it's possible that your kid, through no fault of your own, could be exposed to them.

Are you saying that parents aren't responsible for choosing stupid friends, stupid babysitters and so on? What responsibility do the parents have?

Buckyballs aren't marketed towards children, and have prominent warnings. The manufacturers have even worked with CPSC to get more warnings out, including a video. And there are very few reported injuries compared to the sales volume.

Balloons, on the other hand, do not have the sales restrictions, yet kill lots of children. Something is not right with this.

Blackmarket Buckyballs

[fustakrakich]

Soon we'll be battling the Buckyball cartels in the streets of America. I say end prohibition now!

Re:Blackmarket Buckyballs

[MightyMartian]

First they took away the Buckyball magnets from the Communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they took away the Buckyball magnets from the the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they took away the Buckyball magnets from the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for my Buckyball magnets
and there was no one left with any Buckyball magnets to speak out for me.

Or perhaps

Those who would give up Buckyball magnets to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Buckyball magnets nor Safety

Re:Blackmarket Buckyballs

[bitt3n]

Soon we'll be battling the Buckyball cartels in the streets of America. I say end prohibition now!

I find this prospect strangely attractive

Re:Blackmarket Buckyballs

[Mashiki]

Man you guys banned kinder toy eggs aka kinder surprise. ... And people smuggle them in from Canada, so....I guess you shouldn't have to wait too long.

Re:Blackmarket Buckyballs

[formfeed]

Those who would give up Buckyball magnets to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Buckyball magnets nor Safety

Once Buckyballs are illegal, only cows will be allowed to swallow magnets.

Re:Blackmarket Buckyballs

[mhajicek]

Interesting.

Re:Blackmarket Buckyballs

[oldmac31310]

Rarely any problem getting Kinder Eggs in NY. I had no idea they were banned!

Re:Blackmarket Buckyballs

[Mashiki]

Yeah kinda fugged up isn't it? It's actually a really serious fine, there was a story up here in canuckland oh two weeks back about a couple of Americans being arrested going back to the US for accidentally taking two eggs with them. They were later released, but it's brain dead stupid imo.

Here come the lawsuits...

[bhlowe]

If anything small sells 2 million units, there is a good chance that 1:100,000 will end up in the tummy of a toddler... How many pennies, buttons, or rocks get swallowed each year? This is just another gift to the trial lawyers who can now sue for negligence.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with magnets is they can pinch the intestines between them if you swallow more than one, and that can cause pretty nasty stuff.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Anpheus]

My understanding is that it is different, the intestine isn't blocked, but actually ruptured because the magnets pull through it.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[cheekyjohnson]

We don't sell cribs or strollers that collapse on infants.

That's simply a bad product. I'm sure you could sue the company for that. These work as intended, however.

We don't sell poisoned dog food.

That would be intentionally harming them. Not a fitting analogy.

We don't sell toys marketed to children that can easily kill them.

I think we should be able to if they're just imbeciles and their parents don't pay attention.

It's just a toy, and it really isn't worth kids dying over it.

If it means banning it, it is. Just because you don't find it useful doesn't mean everyone else feels the same way. I believe "for the children" is a terrible excuse whether or not children really are in danger.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[superdave80]

We don't sell toys marketed to children that can easily kill them.

And what does that have to do with Buckyball Magnets, which are not marketed to small children.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[yurtinus]

Except that buckyballs weren't marketed to young children (the packaging says "14 years or older"). They were marketed to adults and teenagers. On top of that, TFA doesn't mention any reports of deaths.

There are so many more dangerous things around the average household that it is simply baffling that there would be a ban on these.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[bhlowe]

As far as I know, no one has died from eating too many buckyballs. Consuming the other type of Buckyballs, Buckminsterfullerene, might make you live longer.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[NIK282000]

Thin edge of the wedge, what's stopping them from banning all small rare earth magnets that are not integrated into a larger non-ingestable product? I'm sure there are child and parent combinations out there dumb enough to get the kid killed by magnet cubes just as easily as spheres. You just wait until they ban all magnets that come in geometric shapes.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[geekoid]

Yes it is. Swallow two and another one an hour later. Then enjoy you perforated intestine and surgery.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Petron]

Buckyballs are *NOT* for kids!

They are marketed to adults. Designed for adults. There are 6 warnings on the package, instructions, plastic storage box, etc that is so expressive, it's to the point where I'm not sure a child should LOOK at it. Really, above and beyond on warnings that kids should not go near these things.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[SpeZek]

When the kid swallows more than one magnet, they can meet up in the intestines rather violently.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Un pobre guey]

What has to occur for you to actually get it? When two or more magnets are swallowed, and they come together on opposite sides of intestinal tissue (note that the intestine is intricately folded), life-threatening pinching can occur. Do we have to show you pictures for you to get it? Sock puppets? A video game where you chase little magnets through a child's intestine? A raunchy cartoon on Comedy Central? What, Dude, what?

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[nbauman]

Right, if a 14-year-old isn't responsible enough to keep them out of the hands of his 10-year-old brother, the kid deserves to die.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[cheekyjohnson]

Find something important to whine over instead of a toy

Indeed. Instead of trying to ban something for everyone, why not find something else to do (directed at both the government and people who thought this was a good idea)?

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[OrangeTide]

Then I guess it's time to find a new fad toy to blow your money on.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[pdabbadabba]

No, actually. They could always have sued for negligence (if, in fact, there was negligence). Banning the things will therefore permit fewer lawsuits, not more.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[yurtinus]

Are you for real?

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[nbauman]

You did realize I was being sarcastic, didn't you?

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[marcosdumay]

It is quite different from swalowing a coin. A pair of magnets can cause some pretty big damage.

It is still better than swalowing things commonly found at houses, like sodium hydroxide, or amoniac. Also, it is better than swalowing things nomaly found out of home, like oil contaminated rocks. But they are nasty, don't ever givem them to babies or small kids.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[hexagonc]

They're actually perfectly fine and perfectly safe for 99.99999% of kids 8 years old and up because most kids are not so stupid as to swallow small metal balls. These things are expensive; why would you do anything to deliberately lose them? When I was 8 years old, it would never even occur to me to swallow these magnets. It would be as self-defeating as swallowing my own LEGO pieces.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[ceoyoyo]

It's possible, but not very likely. The big problem is that they magnets won't pass on their own, and if you don't notice your toddler isn't very happy and take him to the doctor he can eventually get a couple of chunks of necrotic intestine from the pressure. All of which can, of course, potentially happen with any non-digestible thing you swallow.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[ceoyoyo]

Bucky balls aren't marketed at young children. The package clearly states that.

Swallowing a couple of magnets is very unlikely to kill you. It can lead to some unpleasant surgery or, if the parents are really oblivious, some necrotic intestine.

We also sell things like raw hamburger which, if baby even touches somewhere where it's been and hasn't been cleaned up, can (and has) killed kids.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Petron]

It's more stupid teenagers. 2 bucky balls on your ear lobe can look like an ear ring... Hmm what about make it look like a tongue stud! Small ball covered with saliva... yeah that can get swallowed quite easily.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[shutdown -p now]

How often does this actually happen?

If it's, say, a dozen cases per year in a country of 300 million, it's still silly.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Charcharodon]

Natural selection is not just the individual but also the group. Your example is just natural selection doing a little pruning of ba few branches off the family tree.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a mother of a 3 year old that swallowed Bucky balls. The set of blue balls were a gift or my teenage son. My older son had left them out and when my 3 year old woke up from his nap he found them in the older ones room and ate 28. I still have no idea whe he ate them, he is not a child that puts things in his mouth. My theory is that he knew he was not suppose to play with him and he wanted to hide them from everyone. Immediately after he ate them he told me he swallowed 3. At this point I was not aware of the dangers of swallowing Bucky balls. I decideed to take in to the ER just for peace of mind. Long story short, we spent one night in children's hospital and after closely monitering him, we were released. I took him in every 3 days make sure they were still moving through his system. 10 LONG days later he pooped them out

I am not white trash, I am educated and consider myself a a very responsible parent, but "crap" happenes. Anyone that is a parent should know that accidents do happen. Being a parent is a learning experience and it is impossible to protect your children from everything. I don't think anyone in this world has a child that at some point in their life did not swallow something, break something, or hurt them self in a way that probably could have been prevented. Life isn't perfect. But you can not blame the product.

Even after going through this, I do not think they BB should be removed from the shelves. You don't stop selling bicycles because kids can break their bones while riding them. Bucky balls clearly state that they are not for children and should not be consumed. On top if that, they are not sold at toy stores We should be spending our time and energy on trying to figure out how a 24 year old was able to be in possession of 4 automatic weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo and them randomly murder 12 people and injure 50 others.

I may have had a different opinion if my little one would have needed surgery, but I just don't see how removing them from the shelves solves anything. They are only dangerous if swallowed. Do not put them in your mouth. That seems like a better solution to me.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[yurtinus]

...yes of course

*hangs head in shame*

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[Do You Smell That]

When I was 8 years old, it would never even occur to me to swallow these magnets. It would be as self-defeating as swallowing my own LEGO pieces.

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=swallow+lego&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

~1.37 million results, sadly - Google suggested this at the top of the list once I'd typed "Swallow le"

Lesson: people will always manage to do "stupid" things. And there are lots of people.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[johnlcallaway]

It's an ADULT toy you moron. I suppose we should also ban all guns from homes because a few poor excuses for parents let their kids play with those too. Or cars because a few kids found the keys and went for joy rides.

I have no clue?? My wife and I raised two kids. Two kids who were taught at an early age to not put things in their mouth. We didn't have to go through and 'child proof' our house, because our kids were 'raised', and not allowed the run of the house. They were watched, we didn't sit in front of the boob tube watching soaps while they did whatever they wanted to do. We did this thing called 'interaction' where we watched the same insipid shows they did, or went outside and played with them when they were very young and not old enough to be left alone. They learned early on to not get into things they weren't supposed to.

My daughter once called me to come and get her from a birthday party because they were watching an 'inappropriate' movie. I forget what it was, but she knew that she was not allowed to watch it. Maybe your parents didn't teach you moral values, but we did.

Now she is getting her degree in molecular biology, splicing DNA, and contributing to the betterment of society. She is married and owns a home at 24 years of age. All without student loans also. Sounds like she is a lot smarter than a bunch of people on this site.

My son didn't like the 'establishment' route, but is equally smart and moral. He is a musician and tours the country and doesn't live off the state. He has taken apprenticeships and can build and repair violins and boats and is a pretty damn good carpenter. And has a ton of common sense and knows right from wrong.

I did do something, I raised my kids to be independent. I let them discover who they wanted to be encouraged id, and taught them good values. I let them make mistakes, but only ones they could learn lessons from and grow from. I didn't hover over them and act like I was protecting them by simply removing everything dangerous from the house. In reality, parents that do this are just to fucking lazy to watch them.

You are the one with no clue. You believe the BS the world tosses your way about raising kids. Your kids will probably also grow up dependent upon their parents, with asthma and a dozen allergies and no sense because you won't raise them.

You will put them in a cocoon from which they will one day never want to leave because they aren't prepared for the world. You, and others like you, are what creates the moronic Occupy movement and Anonymous .. people who think they deserve everything and have the right to press their opinions on everyone else. Because they were raised to think they are the center of the universe, and everyone needs to take care of them.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[gwjgwj]

We don't sell poisoned dog food.

But we sell poisoned rat food.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[cdmsr]

It seems that any actual negligence would be on the part of the parents. For the manufacturer to be negligent, the product would need to be harmful when used as intended. The manufacturer in this case went to extremes to inform consumers that swallowing the magnets was stupidly dangerous, as was allowing access to the product by a child too young to grasp that fact.

Re:Here come the lawsuits...

[pdabbadabba]

It is also possible for a manufacturer to be liable for injuries arising out of "foreseeable misuse." Though I don't have an opinion on whether this would be appropriate here. As you can probably tell, I was just assuming it for the sake of argument.

Going after the wrong guys

[Anonymous Coward]

So how many parents of magnet-eating children have been prosecuted for abuse/neglect? It's not like they don't know - the warning is on the package.

Don't worry, their parents have an answer

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll just give their toddlers some bullets to play with. I mean really. Anybody who doesn't have the sense to know if their kid is still in the "wants to taste everything" stage will just as easily give them live ammo.

Re:Don't worry, their parents have an answer

[tftp]

Anybody who doesn't have the sense to know if their kid is still in the "wants to taste everything" stage will just as easily give them live ammo.

You don't even need to go for exotic scenarios. Gasoline from a car and some matches can be far more dangerous than a few grams of minimally contained propellant.

Nice things

[bananaquackmoo]

You see? This is why we can't have nice things, Barry!

Re:Nice things

[rmdingler]

crafty

Re:Only in America!

[tlhIngan]

They also spend quite a bit of resources confiscating Kinder egg surprise (50,000 a year according to an article I read), because there is an "unintuitive" toy inside the chocolate egg and a child may swallow it

It happens a lot because they're legal in Canada, actually.

But you don't want to carry them over the border - the guards can get pretty damn nasty over a bunch of toys.

Last week: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Kinder+eggs+surprise+includes+harrowing+stop+border/6956919/story.html

The solution...

[tomalok]

Why not make them large enough to be impossible to swallow? :)

Re:The solution...

[X0563511]

Because then they'll bore holes in kids' hands or punch holes in fridge doors? Those bastards will be quite strong at that size.

Re:The solution...

[miknix]

Why not make them large enough to be impossible to swallow? :)

Aha! Then they would be banned because kids can smash their fingers with them :P

At the very extreme, this is what we would get with super-sized buckyballs:
http://www.geekologie.com/2009/02/guy-loses-finger-to-neodymium.php

Re:The solution...

[Charcharodon]

http://www.tmcmagnetics.com/cow_magnets.html

Like these?

Noo, dont touch my balls...

[stanlyb]

But, but, is this ban valid for Canada too?
If not, you, people, know what to do, just like the black people some 100years ago.

Re:Noo, dont touch my balls...

[green1]

Some products survive a ban in the USA and are still available in Canada, however the loss of a market the size of the USA makes many manufacturers just give up and then Canada gets screwed too...

Re:Noo, dont touch my balls...

[ceoyoyo]

Of course not.

Apparently US border guards can get kind of nasty about bringing banned toys across the border. We think it's pretty hilarious. But I've got to go play with my lawn darts now.

Buy Now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does that mean we should buy as many as we can now or is it possible that the ban would get lifted if they marketed them as adult only products?

Re:Only in America!

[Brandano]

Something that can be dangerous when grossly misused can be outright banned.

Unless it's a weapon

Threw a set away

[elguap0]

I threw away a set recently, although my main concern was my two large dogs, not my 2 year old daughter. Also, obligatory Onion... http://www.theonion.com/articles/fun-toy-banned-because-of-three-stupid-dead-kids,290/

Glad I already have mine...

[The Raven]

I have 7 sets of them. Well... technically about 6.7 sets. It's hard not to lose one here or there when you play with them nearly daily. I'm just glad that I got them now, before the ban... they are my third favorite toy, behind my computer and my phone. I make bracelets out of multiple colors as transient art (lost as soon as they stretch out and get rearranged), play with them on my desk, and use them as temporary tie tacks if I leave my mine at home.

Yes, tie tack. Don't knock it, it works!

Re:Glad I already have mine...

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't have to know that you play with your balls nearly daily.

That said, why don't people simply campaign for them to be weapons instead of toys? If you did so, you could go second amendment and keep them.

Re:Glad I already have mine...

[PeanutButterBreath]

It's hard not to lose one here or there when you play with them nearly daily.

QED

Re:Glad I already have mine...

[makomk]

It's hard not to lose one here or there when you play with them nearly daily.

At which point a little kid could pick the ones you've dropped off the floor and eat them. They don't look obviously dangerous at a glance.

Re:Glad I already have mine...

[Tweezak]

They also make sweet temporary tongue studs! Try it! Freak out your parents! Then freak out the ER doctor!

Re:Glad I already have mine...

[anethema]

I don't actually think there is a ban. Just the feds making recommendations. Their site seems to talk about it and I don't think they are going to stop selling them any time soon.

How many...

[Dcnjoe60]

The article states that dozens of children have swallowed the magnets and 12 required surgery. There are over 60M children age 14 and younger in the US. Isn't this a bit of an over-reaction? I'm curious as to how many children have had problems after swalling coins and other items that people may have on their desk (ie paper clips, thumb tacks, etc.)?

Seems the shootings in Colorado hurt a lot more people, but for some reason, they haven't banned the sale of bullets.

Re:How many...

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems the shootings in Colorado hurt a lot more people, but for some reason, they haven't banned the sale of bullets.

Yes, the USofA is a strange, strange place...

Re:How many...

[Sebastopol]

"Seems the shootings in Colorado hurt a lot more people, but for some reason, they haven't banned the sale of bullets."

The makers of BuckyBalls don't have the billions of $$$ of NRA lobbying PAC behind them, otherwise you never would have even heard of the 12 kids requiring surgery...

Re:How many...

[The MAZZTer]

I swallowed a dime once when I was a kid.

I died.

j/k, I never even noticed when I passed it.

Re:How many...

[tgd]

The problem is if you swallow more then one, they bond through an intestine loop and you can't egest them normally.

That's just step 1 of the problem. Step 2 is the pressure between them wearing/tearing a hole through the intestine, which can be quickly fatal if not caught in time.

Re:How many...

[Anne_Nonymous]

So if you just swallow one of them can you just wait for it to turn into a Buttyball?

Re:How many...

[gweihir]

As I have never heard of this being a specific problem here (Europe), and these Magnets are available, I strongly suspect this is a political stunt that banks on the amazing irrationality of the US population.

The basic problem is that children of a certain age like to swallow things that are bad for them. Its the parent's responsibility to make sure they do not.

Come to think of irrationality, the number of children getting killed by improperly secured firearms is much higher. Not there is an item nobody with children should leave lying around. Apparently a significant number of US parents are too dumb to realize this. This looks very much like an education problem to me, not a problem of the objects themselves.

Re:How many...

[Hatta]

Easy solution. Sell buckyballs as ammo.

Re:How many...

[grumpyman]

Not arguing here but the swallowing of it has to do with its spherical shape vs coin or paper clip?

Re:How many...

[geekoid]

Now imagine swallowing another one an hour later..also, they will rip through your intestine to get together.

Re:How many...

[Yvan256]

Maybe we should repurpose all our prisons to locking up children until they're 18?

I think I already saw that one.

Re:How many...

[TheGratefulNet]

I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly;

I don't know why she swallowed a fly;

I guess she'll start a PAC and sue the blue sky.

Re:How many...

[Greyfox]

Colbert pointed out yesterday that 25 people a day are killed through gun violence, but for some reason they haven't banned the sale of bullets.

Look, you have to think where the Founding Fathers' heads were when they penned the second amendment. Having just got off a war with an oppressive government, they wanted to guarantee that citizens could revolt again should the need ever arise. Back then, the average citizen's armaments were the same ones used by the military. These days if you tried to revolt with the pea shooters you're still allowed to buy, the military could just kill you with a hellfire missile launched from a drone 20 miles away.

So really what it should boil down to is how many lives are considered acceptable losses and the need for consistency across the Government agencies. If 25 deaths a day are acceptable so the rednecks can continue to play with their toys, then that should be the standard for kids managing to weed themselves out of the gene pool with whatever fun toy they're managing to abuse.

I personally really don't care where we set that bar, but trying to have it in two places is not acceptable. Personally I think the banning of buckyballs is setting it a bit low. You can't eliminate risk from life. If you think 25 deaths a day is too high a bar, consider that 100 or so a day die in car accidents. So if you want to go on about banning guns, you should probably be 4 times as excited to ban cars. 12 kids hurting themselves? That pretty much rounds to zero. If anything, Buckyballs should make a more dangerous version of their toy. Maybe... Buckyspikes!

Re:How many...

[pdabbadabba]

Well, I'm with you. but there's an obvious explanation: like it or not (I sure don't) guns and ammunition are protected by the second amendment and (for some reason) have a special place in American culture.

Re:How many...

[geekoid]

It would be an overreaction is it was true.

" This recall involves the Buckyballs® high powered magnets sets labeled "Ages 13+""
http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml10/10251.html

It's a labeling issue, one the company has known about for years, they just didn't change it.

Re:How many...

[cheekyjohnson]

So they'd rather ban it for everyone and declare that it's okay because they arbitrarily deem it "useless." "For the children" is idiotic even if children are getting hurt. In the same way, the TSA and the Patriot Act are idiotic. I believe collective punishment is not the answer.

If that is the case, that is.

Re:How many...

[pedrop357]

How many died?

Re:How many...

[pedrop357]

This is pathetically stupid, and a significant overreach. Basically, the position of the CPSC is that it's not OK for 13 year olds to have Buckyballs anymore.
14 year olds? Yes. 13 year olds? No.

Re:How many...

[RPGillespie]

Americans aren't stupid. If we have to fight our own army, then we'll probably be building bombs and such. An EE and a Chem Eng could wreck a lot of havok if they worked together.

Re:How many...

[Overzeetop]

Unlikely. If the US Gov't went all Saddam Hussein or Al Assad on us there would be lots and lots of dead civilians and twenty years of slowly ferreting out and killing every gun owner in the land. It would be bloody, but it would devolve into total domination in less than 4 weeks and terrorist attacks past that.

It won't happen - Americans aren't cohesive enough to take on such a task, nobody has balls big enough to lead it, and even if they did half the army would defect. But the populace - even the ones who know what to do - will have zero chance against outright defeat of the US war machine.

Re:How many...

[makomk]

Still though, read their damn website. The front page is COVERED in "keep away from all children" warnings, the FAQ states in almost every answer that buckeyballs are not for children, it'll be all over the packaging, all over everything.

And even with all those warnings on the packaging and on the website - even knowing that kids have required surgery after swallowing them - there are still people like you or Dcnjoe60 or The MAZZTer who didn't realise that swallowing Buckyballs was fundamentally more dangerous than swallowing other objects like coins or paperclips and required special medical attention. That's dangerous. After all, everyone's either swallowed things they shouldn't have as kids or knows someone who has, and very few know anyone that's died or been seriously injured that way, so if they're thinking of swallowing Buckyballs as being just like that they're seriously underestimating the risks.

Re:How many...

[ceoyoyo]

But now only the state and criminals will have buckyballs.

Re:How many...

[ceoyoyo]

They are very similar to quarter inch slingshot ammo.

Re:How many...

[hexagonc]

How is this any more dangerous than swallowing any other small magnet that is reasonably strong? Any child of average intelligence over the age 8 (which I just pulled out of my ass) knows that there can be serious consequences to swallowing magnets together with anything else that is ferromagnetic that will attract to it. Maybe they don't understand that it can tear through their intestines but if that is true, THEN TEACH THEM THAT! What happened to simply telling people that these things are dangerous and are not to be swallowed? I mean, there's all kinds of dangers that we warn kids about when they're growing up -- look both ways before crossing the street, don't drink bleach and other household chemicals, be careful with kitchen knives, etc. Now, we add "don't swallow strong magnets!"

Re:How many...

[makomk]

How is this any more dangerous than swallowing any other small magnet that is reasonably strong?

It's not any more dangerous than swallowing any other neodymium magnet, but there are all sorts of regulations on the use of small neodymium magnets in general exactly because this is a danger.

Re:How many...

[pdabbadabba]

Yet again: you're preaching to the choir. (I happen to be a constitutional lawyer...so I'm kinda up on what the courts think.) I was never claiming that the Second Amendment protects the "right" to buy whatever sort of weapon you want. The comment I was responding to was asking why we haven't banned bullets, and I'm pretty sure THAT would be a 2nd Amendment violation in the eyes of just about any U.S. court. And besides, the 2nd Amendment influences public debate about gun control far beyond it's technical legal scope -- our Constitution has more than just legal effects.

Re:How many...

[TriezGamer]

A lot of people seem to ignore the fact that if the military were ordered to turn weapons on the civilians they are sworn to protect, the military would have to fight ITSELF before civilians even arrive on the scene.

Re:How many...

[nbauman]

One death from Magnetix. I probably shouldn't have said that they keep dying. A lot of kids wound up in the ER and had surgery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetix#Product_recalls_by_US_Consumer_Product_Safety_Commission

The 21-month-old died even though his parents followed the label and tried to keep the toy out of reach.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033101897.html

Re:How many...

[tftp]

These days if you tried to revolt with the pea shooters you're still allowed to buy, the military could just kill you with a hellfire missile launched from a drone 20 miles away.

Is this the reason why US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered zero losses?

If every US citizen shoots one US soldier and gets killed in return, the US Army will be wiped out completely, down to the last man, while the population suffers loss of only 0.3%. The US Army exists only because the population allows it to exist.

There were enough urban conflicts in recent time. The one in Syria is ongoing. You can be sure that the well-armed military does not have an upper hand over a ragtag band of freedom fighters. Armies exist to fight other armies. The drone can attack a specific location... but drone operators need to know which location to hit. Cities provide unlimited cover to all kinds of fighters. The military can level a city and destroy the resistance this way; however it is rarely done, and if a US military destroys a US city it will sign its own death warrant.

Experience of recent operations tells us that the army cannot even hold territory. All it can, in Iraq and Afghanistan, is to build small, fortified bases and stay there. We can call them "prisons" for convenience, since the word is fitting well. The US Army has no control over the adjacent land, or over the villages and cities - or over people's minds. It can venture out, suffer a few losses to IEDs, perhaps capture a militant or two, and retreat. In essence, troops there are just targets.

Also consider that currently the US Army enjoys unlimited supplies of war materiel, since factories in the USA are working and producing everything that the Pentagon asks for. This will not be the case if widespread social unrest stops production. The US military does not have an unlimited supply of high-tech weapons - they are too expensive to stockpile. The US Army also does not have millions of boots to be put on the ground; for each grunt with a gun you have nine support personnel who aren't trained fighters (a.k.a. sitting ducks.) If there is ever a conflict between the US Army and The People (which IMO is not very likely) then the Army will fare not any better than Assad's troops in Damascus. They will not be able to use methods of total war on the US territory; and the fallback methods give advantage to militiamen. But the most important factor here will be disobedience, desertion and switching sides. A US soldier is required by law to reject illegal orders. A commander who orders his subordinates to fly a mission and firebomb a US city will find himself arrested, if he is lucky - or fragged if his luck wore thin.

Re:How many...

[cfalcon]

This is true HOWEVER- because this is a moderately large part of our defense against tyranny, we should be concerned about increasing automation of the warfighter. If we eventually hit a level of technology where a general's orders can be executed by robot fighters, you can see how this would be a concern.

Of course, we are at minimum decades away from such a sci-fi scenario.

But GP also misses something- if the US Gov't "went All Saddam Hussein" on us, there would be no way they would take out every gun owner in the land. There's way more guns than people in the US, and we've successfully fought off gun registries time and time again. Everyone would be "a gun owner".

Re:How many...

[cfalcon]

"Look, you have to think where the Founding Fathers' heads were when they penned the second amendment. Having just got off a war with an oppressive government, they wanted to guarantee that citizens could revolt again should the need ever arise. Back then, the average citizen's armaments were the same ones used by the military. These days if you tried to revolt with the pea shooters you're still allowed to buy, the military could just kill you with a hellfire missile launched from a drone 20 miles away."

I *GUESS* I can get behind your idea to sell Hellfire missiles and kill-drones to American citizens, but it just seems a bit unnecessary...

Re:How many...

[Tom]

Seems the shootings in Colorado hurt a lot more people, but for some reason, they haven't banned the sale of bullets.

It would be really interesting to find out how many children require surgery every year because they swallowed a bullet, and compare.

Then again, this would probably lead to a ban on small caliber ammunition only, because beyond 7.62 it's unlikely that a kid would swallow it...

Welcome to the USA, leave your logic with the border guards, you won't need it, we have our own. :-)

Re:How many...

[AvitarX]

Interesting, I swallowed a decent amount (domes and paper clips (or parts of them) of inedible in my late teens/early twenties. Any time I had a swallowing incident with them, my insides would liquify for a day or so.

Re:How many...

[Greyfox]

They suffered fewer losses daily than the civilian population here at home did! Furthermore it is my contention that day-to-day life on a military base is dangerous! While I don't have figures on deaths over there, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if being deployed in Afghanistan is actually safer than being on a military base back home! If I have time later I'll have to go digging around and see if I can find some numbers! Of course, there are far more injuries than deaths, which might still push the numbers back to being safer on home soil. It'd be mildly amusing if you could make the argument that being deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq is safer for our troops than being at home.

Re:How many...

[Greyfox]

YES! It is my contention that "shall not be infringed" means that if you can afford a nuclear weapon as a US citizen, you damn well should be able to buy one! Bill Gates could defend his mansion with tanks! Otherwise you're just paying the second amendment lip service! I like to take things to their logical (And sometimes absurd) extremes. If you go this far, you may as well just go for it and go all the way!

Re:How many...

[tolkienfan]

You're only looking at cost.
You should look at reward too.

Re:How many...

[dl748]

You have to understand something, there is a constitutional right for firearms. There IS NOT a right to buckyballs (or magnets). Its much easier to ban something that is NOT a constitutional right.

Re:How many...

[HappyPsycho]

Securing guns just became harder.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/07/27/1637208/how-a-3-year-old-can-open-a-gun-safe

Re:How many...

[canadiannomad]

That could be quite a powerful weapon... Shoot someone twice and let the bullets tear a path between each other to damage more tissue. :S

Another "ban"

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't we ban cigarettes, prescription medication, automobiles, power tools, and crime, since they are even more dangerous than magnets?

Re:Another "ban"

[maxwell demon]

Why don't we ban [...] crime, since they are even more dangerous than magnets?

So crime is not already illegal in the U.S.?

Re:Another "ban"

[bobbied]

How about banning hydrogen dioxide too? It is extremely dangerous when in liquid form and kills a lot more people (kids and adults) when inhaled.

Re:Another "ban"

[yurtinus]

That all depends on the type of crime. Did it involve buckyballs? LOCK HIM UP!!!!

Re:Another "ban"

[Elros]

How about banning hydrogen dioxide too? It is extremely dangerous when in liquid form and kills a lot more people (kids and adults) when inhaled.

Did you by chance mean dihydrogen-monoxide? http://www.dhmo.org/

Re:Another "ban"

[Lehk228]

because rare earth magnet toys don't have billion dollar lobbying behind them

Re:Another "ban"

[marcosdumay]

How do you syntesize that hydrogen dioxide you want banned? And how long does it live out of the lab? (Obviously, it's not stable.)

Re:Another "ban"

[tftp]

How do you syntesize that hydrogen dioxide you want banned?

Would you settle on dihydrogen dioxide instead?

Alternative Toy

[Solstice]

Looks like I'll just have to get my kid Lawn Darts for Christmas instead.

Re:Only in America!

[Mitreya]

This was not flamebait (well, not meant as one).
Although the actual number of confiscated Kinder Eggs is 25,000 in 2011. Illegal candy...

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[macraig]

I modded you flamebait, but decided I'd rather tell you to your face that this comment is every bit as ignorant and prejudiced as any I've heard uttered by the so-called trailer trash I've encountered. I don't know if this really reflects your beliefs or you're just trying to be controversial, but at face value that's stereotypical trailer-trash talk.

Magnets are a bit different...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd hope ./ readers would understand powerful rare earth magnets are a fundamentally different danger when swallowed than, say, small plastic bits or pennies. As noted in TFA, magnets will connect to each other and pinch/tear/destroy important things like stomachs and intestines. Other stuff you may swallow won't do that.

I don't necessarily agree with the CPSC's actions, but it's a different kettle of fish than the typical "dangerous" small object.

Let's see...

[AdamStarks]

12 cases of ingestion over a period of roughly 8 months... and only "most" of them required surgery, so maybe something like 8 surgeries. I'm curious how much blocking this will cost the economy for each case of surgery that is prevented (assuming those same kids won't get themselves into the ER with something equally small and tasty), and whether or not more lives could be saved by merely having the company donate some portion of their Buckyball profits to a children's hospital.

Huh?

[Psychotria]

This doesn't make sense. So, you're allowed to sell stuff like beads, ball bearings, tiny pieces of lego, screws, nuts, bolts, pebbles, and a trillion other small things but not these magnets? I'm a little bit confused.

Re:Huh?

[Microlith]

These are neodymium magnets that stick together quite strongly. If two are swallowed they run the risk of coming within close proximity to each other while passing through separate parts of the intestines and clamping them together. Only way to remove them at that point is surgery.

That's not to say the other things you mentioned don't run a risk of getting stuck, or that these will get stuck. By being rare earth magnets they set themselves up for causing problems in the twisty path of our lower digestive tract.

Re:Huh?

[Psychotria]

These are neodymium magnets that stick together quite strongly. If two are swallowed they run the risk of coming within close proximity to each other while passing through separate parts of the intestines and clamping them together. Only way to remove them at that point is surgery.

That's not to say the other things you mentioned don't run a risk of getting stuck, or that these will get stuck. By being rare earth magnets they set themselves up for causing problems in the twisty path of our lower digestive tract.

Yes, that makes sense. Thanks. I'd mod you up but I've obviously commented ;)

Re:Huh?

[MacGyver2210]

So basically, because 12 kids were too fucking stupid not to ingest small pieces of metal, or their parents were too fucking dumb to supervise them around these things, nobody can have them, anywhere, at any age?

Land of the free, my ass. Fuck this country. Ten times over.

Re:Huh?

[geekoid]

Then get the fuck out, you short sighted small thinking son of a bitch.

Even better, actually READ THE FACTS OF THE CASE. That article is screwed to twist this whole thing into an attack against Obama.
It's a labeling issue.
http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml10/10251.html

Re:Huh?

[alphatel]

Does this ban affect all neodymiummagnets or only ones called 'buckyballs'?

Re:Huh?

[misexistentialist]

Well what about Acetaminophen? Look cute and have actually killed dozens of children. Do people really need to put children in danger just to relieve headaches?!

Re:Huh?

[camperdave]

On the other hand, they could be useful for clearing the intestine of staples, and paper clips, and such. Think of them as cow magnets for kids :-)

Re:Huh?

[eam]

Your link references a recall from May of 2010. That's not what the article is talking about.

The CPSC is no longer concerned about the labeling. Instead, they've decided the label doesn't matter. The American people are too dumb to be trusted, so the magnets are too dangerous to be sold.

Truth is, they should ban stupid parents, but I guess that isn't going to be happening any time soon.

Just repackage them & call them DEATHBALLS! Market them as pest control.

Re:Huh?

[oldmac31310]

Do pay attention.

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh-oh someone rocked your trailer in the wrong way.

Re:Only in America!

[penguinchris]

I had no idea they were actually banned in the US... I used to get them regularly in Canada when I was a kid growing up in a border town (Buffalo, NY). I regularly brought them back across the border, too, when I was older and went to Canada by myself or with friends. Canada has a whole different selection of non-toy-containing candy from us so I assumed it was just another thing we didn't get in the US (even though you can easily find other Kinder-brand items in the US).

The chocolate in those things is fantastic, by the way, and the toys are decent for what they are.

You know what is also dangerous for children?

[f3rret]

Uranium and bleach

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[bobbied]

We should ban Hydrogen Dioxide. You know it KILLS many people every year! (usually in the summer time)

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uranium and bleach

I love that on the Uranium link it says "In stock. Processing takes an additional 4 to 5 days for orders from this seller."

Lets hope the Iranians don't find out!

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[zergl]

HO2? >_>

(You meant to say Dihydrogen Monoxide)

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[bobbied]

(Face palm!) Indeed... Boy do I look stupid... But that's normal...

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[b5bartender]

...to be fair, most of those who die are Blondes

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[amicusNYCL]

The "also viewed" list of products on that uranium page leaves some questions. I want to know who out there is simultaneously shopping for uranium, milk, "The 2009-2014 Outlook for Wood Toilet Seats in Greater China", a UFO detector, fresh whole rabbit, a horse feeder, a David Hasselhoff "best of" CD, and a home testicle self-exam kit.

The list of products that people actually bought is a little more scary. 3 of those products (iron oxide, aluminum powder, magnesium ribbon) are all you need to make thermite. Which I guess answers the long-standing question I've had since making thermite in high school about where I can get the ingredients easily. Might as well add a little uranium to the mix and see what happens.

Also, this is obviously the best review:

I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty.

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[bobbied]

Withdraw symptoms? Yea, that can be bad I suppose, but I was thinking inhaling this stuff can kill you pretty dead in pretty short order.

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[bobbied]

(putting down the Hydrogen Hydroxide container on my desk..) Um... Yea, seems I put that pesky "2" after the wrong element... Can I blame being dyslexic and tired for this?

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[f3rret]

The list of products that people actually bought is a little more scary. 3 of those products (iron oxide, aluminum powder, magnesium ribbon) are all you need to make thermite. Which I guess answers the long-standing question I've had since making thermite in high school about where I can get the ingredients easily. Might as well add a little uranium to the mix and see what happens.

Yeah I'm sure ordering the ingredients for an incendiary device from Amazon wont get you put on all kinds of fun lists.

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[RenderSeven]

I got some uranium ore and radium in a kit from Edmund Scientific as part of a cloud chamber (a long long time ago when Edmund had the coolest stuff EVER). Brought them into school for a project. The teacher freaked (thought it might explode) and evacuated the school. A crisis was averted when the teacher called her boyfriend (presumably a dual expert in nuclear physics and product safety) who said it was probably safe because I got it through the mail. It's a shame we deny our children the learning experience of inciting unreasoned panic among the ignorant.

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[amicusNYCL]

I have 2 horseshoe pits in my backyard just dying to be turned into glass.

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[fermion]

I find interesting that Uranium is often ordered with Unicorn Spam.

I understand why these magnets are in trouble. They are simply marketed badly, as a toy for children, in the mass market. Uranium and Bleach are not packaged as a toy, though cleaver people seem to be ordering it as such. But clever people repurposing a chemical as a toy is not a problem. It is when dangerous things are marketed or go viral as a toy where the problem occurs. For example, when just a few people knew that a mercury thermometer was a toy, it was not a big deal, But then everyone started doing it.

When a toy gets in trouble, there is also take about water being dangerous, as here. The thing that most people miss is that water as a toy is highly thought out. Wading pools are designed to be shallow. Deeper pools have a series of regulation to insure they do not become an attractive nuisance. Sinks are shallow and fill slowly. Showers do not normally have methods to block the drain. Baths have a high flow of water, but have a large base area so the depth increases slowly. I am sure that people who think that design appear magically are going to say none of this matters, but designs and marketing evolve over time to increase the safety and usability of an object.

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[ceoyoyo]

The also bought on that uranium page are interesting: canned unicorn meat, Tuscan whole milk (1 gallon), "The 2009-2014 Outlook for Wood Toilet Seats in Greater China", and a UFO-02 Detector.

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[cpotoso]

I must be new to chemistry, never heard of HO_2 before...

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[Phreakiture]

If not, you can always claim you're being repressed. Lysdexics of the world untie!

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[Phreakiture]

I find it particularly amusing that Amazon suggests with it, a book called The Making of the Atomic Bomb. It's like, "Here's the product, and here's how to use it."

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[doccus]

Thought that was peroxide (H202)?

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[doccus]

Here's an "also viewed" item that sounds a little hairy..but anyone even know what it *is*? " Harcos Labratory Nuclear Energy Powder Uranium Yellowcake Flavor"

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[b5bartender]

Hydrogen Dioxide = H202 = Hydrogen Peroxide (Not to be confused with Dihydrogen Monoxide, H2O)

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[doccus]

That's Dihydrogen Dioxide there can be no such thing as "hydrogen dioxide", as hydrogen only has one link.. unless thats a "common" name for it

Re:You know what is also dangerous for children?

[doccus]

It just occurred to me i may be wrong, as it could bond to an O2 molecule.. sorry...

a nice company, too

[agrif]

Me and my brother recieved the silver Buckyball cubes as Christmas gifts a few years back. These things are a blast to play with.

When one of the balls on my brothers set shattered, we called one of the listed numbers for the company to ask about maybe purchasing a replacement ball. The person on the other end was extremely interested in how this happened (apparently they hadn't had a report of a ball shattering before), and offered to send us an entire new set for free. On Christmas day. This was excellent, excellent support for an awesome product.

It's sad to hear about this.

Re:a nice company, too

[ceoyoyo]

Uh huh. So tell us how the ball shattered.

I'm not saying..

[HexKrak]

I'm not saying lets kill all the stupid people, I'm just suggesting we remove all the warning labels and let nature sort it out.

Re:I'm not saying..

[HornWumpus]

One warning label: 'Don't be a moron.' In every school.

Re:I'm not saying..

[Nyder]

I'm not saying lets kill all the stupid people, I'm just suggesting we remove all the warning labels and let nature sort it out.

Seems to me the stupid people aren't reading the warning labels anyways.

Freeeeeeeedooooooom!!!!!

[airdweller]

Freaking commie guberment!!! You'll get my buckyballs if you pry them from my cold dead hands!!!!

Re:Freeeeeeeedooooooom!!!!!

[Deus.1.01]

Freaking commie guberment!!! You'll get my buckyballs if you pry them from my cold dead INTESTINE!!!!

FTFY

Re:Freeeeeeeedooooooom!!!!!

[airdweller]

Well, yeah :)

But I was mostly trying to channel the rage the NRA-type people must be overcome with right now :)

Re:Freeeeeeeedooooooom!!!!!

[Deus.1.01]

I know I know...I was just trying to whore myself some mod points :)

Thank for setting me up...to bad slashdotters are to lazy to scroll.

Re:Only in America!

[Doctor_Jest]

Shooting the gun isn't a gross misuse of the gun. It may be illegal to shoot another person, but firing the weapon is what it's designed for.

Swallowing a magnet isn't. Dumbass.

More than a dozen reports ...

[jamesl]

... of Buckyball swallowing in about six months.

Football, one of the most popular sports in the United States, is also the leading cause of sports-related injuries. During the 2005-06 season, high school football players sustained more than half a million injuries nationally.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070815154430.htm

Makes Buckyballs look pretty safe and the Consumer Product Safety Commission look pretty misguided.

Re:More than a dozen reports ...

[yurtinus]

You know, 100% of injuries happen to people. If we ban people, we can finally save them from all those injuries!

Re:More than a dozen reports ...

[Overzeetop]

Nobody makes a billion dollars a year on buckyball magnets.

See how easy that is?

Re:What about ZEN magnets?

[shentino]

Parents would scream bloody murder if the government tried to interfere with what kinds of babies they had.

Zen Magnets

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the sales of Zen Magnets are about to increase...

(For those who don't know, Zen Magnets are *exactly* the same thing as buckyballs except for a very slight increase in quality and price. That would also mean they'd be more dangerous due to higher magnetic strength.)

Re: Zen Magnets

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a bit anal, but Zen Magnets are the exact same strength. They claim a better surface finish and diameter tolerances, which supposedly assists when making the really super-ambitious structures with the things. They do not claim increased magnetic strength.

Re: Zen Magnets

[cawpin]

I would argue a very slight increase in price for a very noticeable increase in quality.

So much for free enterprise

[ilikenwf]

I've got the nanny state blues, man.

Re:Some other things that should be banned...

[MickyTheIdiot]

don't forget 1000-foot-tall straw men.

You can still buy Buckballs

[mcnster]

from amazon.ca and have them shipped over the border to the "land of the free" (cough).

Re:You can still buy Buckballs

[ceoyoyo]

Will Amazon Canada ship to the US? Amazon US will almost never send anything north.

Re:Only in America!

[JustOK]

They're designed to make a profit for the guns/bullets manufacturers.

More power needed Scotty!

[Twinbee]

The solution is simple, ban the smaller ones and supply 2 inch cubed neodymium versions instead. They'll have a tough job swallowing those!

Re:More power needed Scotty!

[amoeba1911]

Your 2 inch neodymium magnet cubes would be just about as dangerous, if not more. You get your hand stuck between them, and you will not have a hand anymore.

Re:More power needed Scotty!

[Twinbee]

That was the joke. I'd barely even risk buying one myself, let alone more than one, or a kid buying them.

Meh

[EkriirkE]

It's probably only because they market it as a toy. Just change the target and the will be back (18+ "Highly toxic art", perhaps)

Re:Not so harmless afterall

[cheekyjohnson]

First I thought this was another nanny-state ban. But it looks like they are dangerous for small children.

That is a nanny-state ban. Banning something for all of us because a minority abuse it/get hurt by it.

Geez.

[jht]

Glad I got 4 packages of them through Woot last year, then. My 10-year old son is smart enough to not eat them, and also capable of making cool things and shapes with them. I'm pretty sure they won't be fatal.

Still on sale at...

[Anubis IV]

Get them while you can:
GetBuckyballs ($35-40 for 216 balls)
BustedTees ($30 for 216 balls)
Neatoshop ($35 for 216 balls)

Judge how reputable the shops are for yourself. I'm not vouching for any of them.

12?

[englishknnigits]

I hate our government, seriously. Maybe I should forward the following list to the CPSC. I'm pretty sure most of the items on the list have caused more than 12 cases of choking and/or surgery since November. They've got a lot of banning to do!
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the following items are common choking hazards:
Hot dogs and sausages
Chunks of meat
Grapes
Hard candy
Popcorn
Peanuts and other nuts
Raw carrots
Fruit seeds
Apple chunks
Coins
Toys with small parts
Small balls and marbles
Balloons
Arts and crafts materials
Ballpoint pen caps
Watch batteries
Jewelry

Re:12?

[BradleyUffner]

I hate our government, seriously. Maybe I should forward the following list to the CPSC. I'm pretty sure most of the items on the list have caused more than 12 cases of choking and/or surgery since November. They've got a lot of banning to do!

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the following items are common choking hazards:

Hot dogs and sausages
Chunks of meat
Grapes
Hard candy
Popcorn
Peanuts and other nuts
Raw carrots
Fruit seeds
Apple chunks
Coins
Toys with small parts
Small balls and marbles
Balloons
Arts and crafts materials
Ballpoint pen caps
Watch batteries
Jewelry

Not to defend the ban... but those items are WAY different than magnets that will pinch and perforate the intestines due to the magnetic attraction and small size.

Re:12?

[geekoid]

You know what I hate? people like you that take any headline seriously with out bothering to read up. Secondly I hate articles that talk about shit like this and omit key facts as an excuse to push a political agenda.
The fact of the matter, you poor excuse for a limp wristed cum stain, is that it's a labeling issue. That Is All. Change the label,. and they are good to go. Something the company could have done a YEAR AGO and not have had the recall.

http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml10/10251.html

And this has nothing to do with choking.

Re:12?

[JDG1980]

That Is All. Change the label,. and they are good to go. Something the company could have done a YEAR AGO and not have had the recall.

In fact, they already did change it, over two years ago. From the page you linked:

Since March 2010, Buckyballs(R) high powered magnets sets were labeled "Keep Away From All Children" and are not being recalled.

Re:12?

[englishknnigits]

I actually read the article, not just the headline. I also hate articles that omit facts like that, I don't like being misled. I don't have time to fact check everything I read everywhere, it's not possible. They did change the label and it was back in March 2010, maybe you should try reading links you bitch about other people not reading. They are bitching because the old boxes were labeled 13+ when they should have been labeled 14+ (or keep away from all children). The fact that they waste peoples time with this garbage still makes me hate them. Yes, less so than if they had outright banned the product as TFA implies.

Re:12?

[ceoyoyo]

Are they? I bet many or most of those things cause more fatalities every year than small magnets do. Swallowed small lithium batteries have caused an average 1.7 deaths per year over the last six years! Buckyballs? Zero.

Re:Only in America!

[blackbeak]

Let's just save some time and ban everything small! That should include insect size surveillance drones, GPS dots, nano anything, and the miniature hearts of the 1%.

Re:Only in America!

[cheekyjohnson]

It may be illegal to shoot another person

Most likely if it's not in self-defense. In any case, a gun can be used for more than murder. Banning them for everyone would be similar to this (where a few get misused/people get hurt by them).

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

It's a shame this post was modded down. I'd personally prefer to reward dudes with mod-points who decide against using them just to say "I disagree".

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[Anonymous Coward]

It would appear that you are the only "flamer" who was "baited"

Re:Only in America!

[pkinetics]

Or alcohol... or nicotine... or surgery... or a motor vehicle... or a lawn mower used as a hedge trimmer...

Re:Only in America!

[Transkaren]

There's nothing in the article that explicitly says this, but I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that the harrowing stop had more to do with Chris and his husband than the official excuse of Kinder Eggs - especially since they weren't even confiscated. But maybe I'm just paranoid.

Still available

[Cosgrach]

They are still available on their web site. Get them while you can!!!

Re:Only in America!

[story645]

Same here about not knowing they were banned, as I got them in at the various Russian grocery stores in Queens, NY when I was a kid (the 90's, so long after the ban was in place) 'cause they had really good toys.

Re:Blame Obama!

[RenderSeven]

I caught that too. Im not a fan of the Big O but that claim came off as a bit whiny. Still the claim has some merit. Appointing Marietta Robinson to the commission broke the commission deadlock in favor of the Democrats, a good thing if you're a Dem, a bad thing if you're a Rep, and a bad thing if you think government deadlock is healthy. Also it's notable that Robinson is a torte lawyer specializing in medical malpractice, and donated heavily to both the DNC and Obama. Not that the GOP doesnt do the same thing, but Obama did actually promise he would stop the practice of handing plum appointments to lobbyists and political donors.

The most disturbing thing (I think) is that the CPSC is adopting a practice of shutting down retailers and distribution channels without going through the trouble of actually declaring a product as unsafe or hazardous, which denies businesses (and consumers) of their legal due process. I can more or less live with government regulation as long as it is subject to the rule of law, that there is accountability, and there is legal recourse.

How about some actual truth?

[geekoid]

It's simply a labeling issue:
http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml10/10251.html

Re:How about some actual truth?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was a press release from 2010. This is a newer government action.

Re:How about some actual truth?

[Nate148]

How many 13 year olds do you know that would eat magnets? FDA might want to change that number a bit.

Re:Only in America!

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

I always preferred Crunchy Frogs myself...

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[macraig]

The bigger shame is that the parent comment to mine has been modded +5 Insightful... not even +5 Funny, but Insightful. WTF? What does that tell us about the current average Slashdot moderator mindset? Is it tribalism, crazyjj's buddies all mindlessly modding him up, or is it inbreeding?

faux-libertarian dipshits

[OrangeTide]

We should let the free market decide what is safe for kids. If people want their kids to have invasive surgery, then the Chinese should be allowed to sell products that will accomplish that. caveat emptor!

Re:faux-libertarian dipshits

[ckaminski]

I prefer to keep the CPSC aimed at finding problems that AREN'T fucking obvious, like bad plastic in car seats.

Eating a handful of rare earth magnets runs up there in the fucking obviously bad idea if you're smarter than a 5th grader category. Fuck that.

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[Mike Buddha]

It's summertime. The self-centered teens have nothing to do but bitch about how everyone's keeping them down.

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[Hentes]

It's easy, mod up responses that disagree.

wait

[Charliemopps]

How many kids were KILLED in car accidents in the same period of time? I think the benevolent Consumer Product Safety Commission should issue a stop-sale on automobiles immediately. It's the only safe thing to do.

This might be a good thing

[viperidaenz]

For everyone outside the US. Hopefully an over supply will result in lower prices for everyone else at the expense of US citizens, caused by the stupidity of US children and their parents.

Re:Blame Obama!

[Sulphur]

Also it's notable that Robinson is a torte lawyer specializing in medical malpractice.

Do you have a recipe for legal tortes.

--

Tortle -- Doing something which is legal, but it should not be. He tortled with her affections.

I was totally confused...

[amoeba1911]

To clear up some confusion I found the source on CPSC's own site. It's slightly more informational than the Reuters summary... But I'm still confused.

I bought tiny fridge magnets from The Container Store that are actually tiny neodymium cubes, are they banned also? Are they exempt because they're not toys?

How about just plain neodymium magnets direct from suppliers? Are they banned also or are they exempt because they're not labeled as toys?

How about a hobby brushless motor kit that comes with neodymium magnets? Is that banned also or is that exempt because even though it's a toy the magnets are supplied with the purpose of installing them in the motor?

So many unanswered questions... I think it would be easier to require all kids to wear muzzles to keep their mouth closed at all times. It would solve all the issues where kids choke on things or eat poisonous/dangerous materials, and has added benefit of muffling their annoying whiny cries.

Re:I was totally confused...

[JDG1980]

How about just plain neodymium magnets direct from suppliers? Are they banned also or are they exempt because they're not labeled as toys?

As their name implies, the CPSC only has jurisdiction over consumer products. They couldn't ban commercial/industrial supplies, even if they wanted to.

I see stupid people

[bussdriver]

I see stupid people. I do not have special powers, I'm in the USA.

Cite please

[way2trivial]

there hasn't been a single death from buckyballs.

Re:Cite please

[nbauman]

Right. There was one death from a similar magnetic toy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/31/AR2006033101897.html

There have been several cases of children who swallowed them, and needed surgery to remove them.

Magnets don't hurt kids!

[wiedzmin]

Magnets don't hurt kids, irresponsible parents who don't keep harmful things away from their kids and don't pay attention to what their kids are doing, hurt kids. Are you going to be banning every possible small object that could be swallowed by a child now?

Geek stupidity

[caywen]

Let me get this straight: A bunch of geeks are all pissed because the prevention of harm and death to young kids is preventing them from buying more of the toys they already have.

Seriously, get a clue. Find another toy and stfu plz.

Re:Geek stupidity

[Gaygirlie]

No, they're pissed because a toy that was never meant for children is being given to children by stupid parents and as such they cause the toy to be banned. It's like giving a power-drill to a child and then crying foul when the kid gets hurt: "oh, just get a clue and find something else, parents don't need to pay more attention and I'll just continue shoving fingers in my ears while yelling lalalalalala..."

Re:Geek stupidity

[caywen]

And yet, there are so many other scenarios where such toys would end up in kids mouths despite their parents being perfectly good parents. Bad preschools. Older siblings. Kids climbing up on Daddy's computer desk while Daddy's in the toilet. These things happen, and in the case of these toys, the effect is much worse than it would seem due to the strong magnetics.

Re:Geek stupidity

[Gaygirlie]

And yet, there are so many other scenarios where such toys would end up in kids mouths despite their parents being perfectly good parents. Bad preschools. Older siblings. Kids climbing up on Daddy's computer desk while Daddy's in the toilet. These things happen, and in the case of these toys, the effect is much worse than it would seem due to the strong magnetics.

All the things you said apply to almost anything! Kids can end up with all kinds of things they shouldn't and even die, yet those products aren't banned. Hell, you'd have to ban even basic ball-pens, then, as there are several cases of severe trauma, lost eyes and death associated even with those. So why are Buckyballs or similar stuff any different? All I see is a witch-hunt by people who do not care to actually think for a few more minutes before crying foul.

Re:Geek stupidity

[Dan667]

Ban people from having children. It is the only sure way to prevent this.

you want to live in a nanny state, but not everyone does.

Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[Roger W Moore]

Banning the sales of ammo would be unconstitutional, regardless of any statistic.

While that illustrates how broken the US constitution is what about bleach or any one of a number of other household products which are lethal if swallowed? If adults are going to let kids play with dangerous items those kids are at risk of serious injury or death. So, to be consistent, either you have to accept that or you have to ban from sale any product (that you legally can) that may harm someone if swallowed.

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[sumdumass]

There is nothing broken about the US constitution. It's more in the interpretation of it leading to the practice.

The difference in the sale of bleach is that it is commonly used for things other then a toy. Bucky balls have no significant use outside of being a toy. You can still buy them, just not in the local toy store.

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[1u3hr]

what about bleach or any one of a number of other household products which are lethal if swallowed

The chemicals are expected to be kept out of children's reach, in a laundry cupboard say.

Desk toys are intended to be played with on a desktop. They not only look like toys, they ARE toys and kids can see their parents playing with them.

Aside from that, I take offence at the maufacturer calling these "Buckyballs". They aren't anything to do with Buckminster Fuller, and they certainly aren't "buckyballs" (Buckminsterfullerene). They aren't truncated icosahedra, just spherical magnets.

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[weakref]

bleach does not look like a candy and the smell is offensive

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[EricThribb]

Bucky balls have no significant use outside of being a toy..

They make great fridge and whiteboard magnets

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[aamcf]

I know it's probably just pavlovian conditioning, but I like the smell of bleach.

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[danbert8]

Then what about backyard pools? They are purely recreational as well and kill many times more toddlers and babies. I personally know someone who lost a family member due to drowning in the pool. I know of no one who died from swallowing magnets.

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[pnutjam]

It seems like they would be prone to rolling down the fridge.

Re:Bleach, glue, insecticide etc.

[arth1]

It seems like they would be prone to rolling down the fridge.

You don't know the first thing about magnets. They are dipoles.
Meaning that only two points of the magnet attract to the fridge. Meaning they don't roll.

Re:Blame Obama!

[RenderSeven]

Just like a tarte, but with a better spell checker.

It's happy fun ball!

[WallaceAndGromit]

... If happy fun ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/happy-fun-ball/229058/

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[makomk]

Yes, the surgery is needed. If swallowed the magnetic balls stick together through the intestine walls, cutting off circulation and eventually punching holes in the intestines through which the intestinal contents leak into the abdomen. That's just a little fatal without surgery.

Re:I got an idea; Ban stupid parents instead.

[caywen]

I got an idea - tell us how to implement such a ban and you've got yourself a deal.

No worse than a Bag o' Glass

[eswierk]

Surely Mainway Toys will find a way to keep marketing tiny, super-powerful magnets.

Re:Blame Obama!

[harperska]

The most disturbing thing (I think) is that the CPSC is adopting a practice of shutting down retailers and distribution channels without going through the trouble of actually declaring a product as unsafe or hazardous, which denies businesses (and consumers) of their legal due process. I can more or less live with government regulation as long as it is subject to the rule of law, that there is accountability, and there is legal recourse.

This.

I am a far cry from your average libertarian, and actually like Obama for the most part. But this is way out of line for government interference in commerce. If buckyballs were in fact marketed to kids, then those selling them should fry. But in this case, it is clear that they were not.

Perhaps what could work, as opposed to an outright ban, would be some sort of waiver that the consumer has to sign before purchase acknowledging that it is a product for responsible adults, that the purchaser is a responsible adult, and that the seller is not held liable should the buyer fail to keep them out of the reach of a child who injures him/herself with them.

Re:Some other things that should be banned...

[Yvan256]

And don't forget the WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MEN!

Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

Accidental Poisonings

[Roger W Moore]

Even if you swallow some balls, but not at once, you will need to go to the surgery.

Correct - you will need surgery but nobody has yet died. However if you look at the stats for accidental poisonings in the US you will see that there are 41,592 deaths every year. 91% of these are due to drugs which leaves 3,473 deaths every year due to non-drug related poisonings. It is not clear how many of these are due to kids swallowing household chemicals but you have to wonder why there is any need to ban something over 12 surgeries and zero deaths given the number of actual deaths from swallowing things.

Re:Accidental Poisonings

[tolkienfan]

Probably because it's mostly affecting children.

Don't Tread On Me

[sker]

They can have my Buckyballs when they pry them from my cold, dead.... intestines.

Re:Not so harmless afterall

[ceoyoyo]

Don't give them to children. The package specifically says not to.

Re:I got an idea; Ban stupid parents instead.

[PPH]

Good luck with that. The problem is that the kids most at risk for getting hold of such toys tend to come from families where there are 8 kids, ranging from 27 years to 18 months. All living in the same double-wide. Try to keep the older kids' toys out of the hands of the little ones. Not to mention the .357 Magnum the 15 year old just traded his dirt bike for and keeps under his pillow. At least ma' keeps her cigarettes tucked in her bra strap where the little ones can't reach them.

All we can do is pray for global warming and more tornadoes.

Why not read before posting?

[NeveRBorN]

That recall you are citing was in 2010.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

How many hours apart do you need to swallow them for this effect to take place? Generally if they're within innser-stomach distance from each other, they connect instantly and would pass through the digestive track together since it takes significant force to pinch them apart.

Evolution of the Species by Natural Selection

[X86Daddy]

If we keep banning the ways stupid people off their own young, how are we going to avoid Idiocracy???

What if they impregnate them with a foul taste?

[EricScott]

I have no idea if this is even possible, but what if they impregnated the magnets with a foul taste? Maybe babies/toddlers don't swallow everything that goes in their mouths right away, and a foul taste would help them make the right decision and spit them out.

Thinking Rationally

[NeveRBorN]

Let's look at the facts..

In their press release (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml12/12234.html), the CSPC states "Since 2009, CPSC staff has learned of more than two dozen ingestion incidents, with at least one dozen involving Buckyballs. Surgery was required in many of incidents."

Let's do the math. If the number of children, 14 years of age or younger, in the United States was approximately 60,000,000 in 2010, then the probability of any one of them requiring surgery if all 24 known incidents required surgery would be 1 in 2,500,000. If the probability of being struck by lightning were 1 in 1,000,000 (estimates seem to between 1 in 500,000 and 1 an 1,000,000 depending on where you look), that would mean a child is 2.5 times more likely to be struck by lightning than swallow 2 or more buckyballs and require surgery. (http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_&met_y=population&idim=country:US&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+of+the+united+states#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=population&fdim_y=country:US&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=age_group&idim=age_group:3:2:1&ifdim=age_group&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false)

According to asktheodds.com, your chance of dying in a car accident in any given year are between 1 in 4000 and 1 in 8000. Dying in a tornado? 1 in 60,000. If you go skydiving once a year, the odds you'll die are 1 in 100,000.

Now of those of us that have children, I'd wager that most (including me) expose our kids to the death trap that is an automobile quite often, and at times when we could walk instead. I also hear that there are people who expose their children to a higher risk of death by tornado by living in those areas where tornadoes are more common.

My point here (I almost forgot I had one) is that we do many things that are far more likely to kill our children than purchase buckyballs. It is completely irrational to blow taxpayer money to take a product that has injured somewhere around 24 kids over a 3 year period off the market.

I'm sorry, my probability was a little off. I lumped all 24 reports in one year rather than distributing it among the three, so it'd actually be 1 in 7,500,000.

Re:Blame Obama!

[Sulphur]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torte
A torte is a rich, usually multilayered, cake that is filled with buttercreams, mousses, jams, or fruits. Ordinarily, the cooled torte is glazed and garnished.

A tarte might relate to cosmetics. www.tartecosmetics.com/

The real story

[rabtech]

The magnets are still available for sale, but some retailers agreed to pull them because the CPSC asked them to.

You can still buy them from the company's website.

The recall was a long time ago to clarify the packaging and all the current products clearly say not for children and specifically mention the danger of swallowing them.

The owner of the business must be republican because he uses it as an opportunity to bash Obama, but he is also playing this up for the same reason all small business owners tend to hyperventilate about everything - publicity to drum up sales.

The CPSC -is- suing the maker in an attempt to get them banned but I highly doubt the lawsuit will succeed. Frankly I'd rather they go after all the snake oil peddlers and herbal supplement/homeopathic makers. That shit does far more damage to many thousands of people every year. Or maybe we could break up the telco/cable dualopoly but fat chance.

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

It's not my fault you developed an opinion before reading the article.

Wham-O

[Zomalaja]

Anyone remember the Wham-O Blow Gun ? I remember as a 8 or 9 year old my brother getting one. It would shoot a dart 1/4" or so into the side of our house. I think our parents saw the holes because one day it was just gone and my Dad told us it had been recalled. That was a dangerous toy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthetube/2461920607/

Jaw-breakers too.

[SlashDev]

Ban buckyballs but not jaw-breakers?

Re:Finally, a post by someone who is not a moron

[bennomatic]

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[cyn1c77]

Yes, the surgery is needed. If swallowed the magnetic balls stick together through the intestine walls, cutting off circulation and eventually punching holes in the intestines through which the intestinal contents leak into the abdomen. That's just a little fatal without surgery.

But why do you need to waste money on a surgeon?

Can't you just put the kid in an MRI and rip the magnets out?

Re:Only in America!

[Doctor_Jest]

Very true... which is why I mentioned "may" in there... what I can't fathom is why weapons, guns, whatever come up in a conversation about banning magnets. And I'm the troll, but he's "insightful". So cute, these moderators... Pushing agendas instead of forwarding the discussion.

Guns and bullets kill people

[sakari]

So, you're trying to argue that if every household has access to guns, this doesn't lead to any killings?
Everyone who gets killed in a gunfight is a drug meddler or a gang member ? So you don't count those people as really people, do you ?

Guns and bullets kill people, period. The more we have those goddamn guns and bullets in our houses, the more people will get killed as a side product of this.
Banning guns does more harm than good .. uhm yes, if you want to cut down the population of this planet, then yes.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[davester666]

WTF? MRI? Why waste it's time [which is pretty expensive] on this? Just build a nice big iron-core coil magnet and hook it up to a power support. Maybe paint it with some coating to make it easier to wash off the blood and you are set.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[_Shad0w_]

I suspect the field required to degauss a rare earth magnet might also be harmful to the person. There may also be a problem with toxicity - I seem to recall most rare earth metals have moderate toxicity...

Stupid paternalistic crap

[pivot_enabled]

Disgusted.... Just disgusted.

Re:How many dead kids is a desktoy worth?

[pivot_enabled]

It is worth as much surgery and death as it takes to maintain our freedom, that's how much!

True this

[SmallFurryCreature]

The kid in the story was 4 years old and swallowed three magnets, claiming he thought they were chocolate...

Which to anyone who knows anything about kids, knows this is complete and utter bullshit. Kids that age don't think, they put anything in their mouth and 99% of parenting is trying to stop them doing that. Dog owners know what I am talking about.

So, we ban anything that kids can swallow that is bad for them. In Europe, the new thing in laundry is small pouches with enough liquid inside for one wash. You just drop them in the washing machine. They are not that common in America I read because kids keep eating them. Tells you a bit about the difference between the EU and the US. Even handling these things makes your hands smell strongly of soap, so no kid could possibly think they are candy. Only an animal (compare toddler IQ to that of a dog) that just tries anything in case it might be food would eat it. So parents have a simple job, keep everything that is harmful, out of harms way. That is why toys like Lego are not for toddlers and instead toddlers get Duplo which has blocks so large even the dumbest kid can't swallow them.

Yet at the same time, stories of toddlers killing themselves or others with guns NEVER result in gun control. It isn't just maniacs buying guns to slaughter people, it is "normal" (by American standards where standards are low) gun owners who don't lock their gun away, who result in these regular stories of kids finding guns and firing them.

Yet, buckyballs are banned, guns are not.

This is the US in a nutshell. Buckyballs should just have spend its money on lobbyists like the gun companies have.

2 years old

[SmallFurryCreature]

This kid was 4

You argument?

And if something is sold in a store, it makes it difficult not to have it in the house? Because the store owner forces you to buy it? Because you are incapable of thinking "mmm this toy clearly has a warning on it to keep it away from all kids, so lets not buy it for my kids".

Didn't you child proof the house when you got a kid? Use those childproof plastic stickers on all your outlets? Lock the cabinet with chemicals? Keep power tools out of reach? Close the front door so the kid can't escape? Not boil water without keeping an eye on it?

Parenting is hard work, don't want to do it, don't get a kid.

Re:Only in America!

[tftp]

They're designed to make a profit for the guns/bullets manufacturers.

Of course. Every other product in the world is made by manufacturers just to lose money on it.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[mysidia]

Generally if they're within innser-stomach distance from each other, they connect instantly and would pass through the digestive track together since it takes significant force to pinch them apart.

Their safety guidance for medical professionals seems to suggest otherwise:

If more than one magnet was swallowed, it is highly unlikely that they will pass without surgical removal because of their tendency to bind together across membranes.
Radiographs will be definitive and will show small round spheres, linked together in the gastrointestinal tract.
Once the diagnosis is confirmed, urgent surgery is indicated to remove the magnets, repair any tissue damage and treat for infection. Patient follow-up is essential. Do not assume that they will pass through the gastrointestinal tract without treatment.
For more information, please download our complete Diagnosis and Treatment Service Announcement here

Oh my god

[SmallFurryCreature]

You are the one aren't you, the "won't someone please think of the children" trailer trash?

Well, guns kill far more kids, including guns that kids even toddlers get a hold on. Get guns banned first, then I will help you getting harmless toys that have not killed anyone banned in your quest to make the world totally safe for irresponsible morons.

Re:Oh my god

[1u3hr]

you are the one aren't you, the "won't someone please think of the children" trailer trash?

So because some assholes use "think of the children" to advance their own agenda, that means that there is no real risk that anyone else can take action ont?

Get guns banned first

And the police shouldn't worry about catching thieves or robbers till they catch all the murderers. etc, etc.

make the world totally safe for irresponsible morons.

Children, not morons. Children need to be protected. Adult morons can kill themselves, with my blessing. Just as long as they don't take anyone else with them.

Re:Oh my god

[MrSenile]

Children, not morons. Children need to be protected. Adult morons can kill themselves, with my blessing. Just as long as they don't take anyone else with them.

Good point.

So how about parents take their responsibility and PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN.

You know... like... watch their children so they don't get into...
chemicals...
poisons...
sharp objects...
flammable materials...
guns or other deadly weapons...
anything outside of their agegroup...

And you know... maybe... oh, WATCH your children and not have the TV or their siblings do it for you might be a good first step to that.

I'm tired of parents blaming other parties when they should spend more time looking in a mirror.

Yes, this ban is absurd, but ...

[ryan.onsrc]

Firstly, I want to say that I have enjoyed many hours of entertainment with these Buckyballs. I even bought two more sets so I could make some real cool structures with them. Since when did all products have to be safe for humans to ingest? It seems to me like all household cleaners, motor oil, industrial lubricants, hell ... even integrated circuits would have to be yanked off the market now.

All of that being said, I'm actually surprised no-one else has mentioned a particularly troublesome issue with bucky-balls that poses for even intelligent adults: peeling metal. After having fumbled with these bucky-balls for a long time, tiny slivers of metal have been peeling off, which would be fine if they didn't end up on my fingers. Just imagine a wooden splinter, only way smaller and more rigid. I've found them to be impossible to remove deliberately. Basically you have to go several hours, sometimes even a day or two, with the shavings on your finger and eventually they will fall off (either by being washed off or just falling off after awhile). Fortunately, I've been careful not to ingest the slivers or scratch my eyes but after having the slivers end up in my fingers a few times I've stuffed the bucky balls into a box and tossed them aside.

That doesn't mean I'm going to go complaining to the company about it like a cry-baby. I do realize that rare-earth magnets are quite brittle and they must be treated with care (which I thought I did -- but apparently not enough so). Perhaps I'll pick up some gardening gloves and give the bucky-balls another go.

CPSC accident reports

[nbauman]

CPSC accident reports

http://www.saferproducts.gov/Search/Result.aspx?cid=14858&dm=1&srt=0

REPORT
|
7/16/2012
|
20120611-83E1C-2147466743

11yo girl who presented to the emergency department after having swallowed 5 ...
Incident Description: 11yo girl who presented to the emergency department after having swallowed 5 BuckyBalls that she was playing with in her mouth. She obtained these BuckyBalls as a gift from her mother after she saw them in her school classroom, and having several friends who ... (More)
Product: Building Sets
Product Description: 5 small silver balls, approximately 2mm width.
Injury Info: Injury, Emergency Department Treatment Received
Manufacturer / Importer / Private Labeler: MAXFIELD & OBERTON HOLDINGS LLC

REPORT
|
6/22/2012
|
20120523-A51C5-2147467321

9yo boy needed MRI for mental status changes and abdominal scanner went off. ...
Incident Description: 9yo boy needed MRI for mental status changes and abdominal scanner went off. Went for AXR and metal object appearing to be a bracelet found. Boy subsequently admitted to swallowing magnets 1 mo ago (Bucky balls). After observing for a few days and giving a ... (More)
Product: Building Sets
Product Description: small magnets (buckyball)
Injury Info: Injury, Hospital Admission
Manufacturer / Importer / Private Labeler: MAXFIELD & OBERTON HOLDINGS LLC

REPORT
|
6/6/2012
|
20120507-AC130-2147467809

2 y/o female ingested 2 'buckyball' magnets. Urgent endoscopy performed at ...
Incident Description: 2 y/o female ingested 2 'buckyball' magnets. Urgent endoscopy performed at night, and magnets were removed endoscopically. She did well afterwards and was discharged home. This was incredibly dangerous given the risk of perforation with such magnets.
Product: Building Sets
Product Description: buckyball round spherical magnets
Injury Info: Injury, Emergency Department Treatment Received
Manufacturer / Importer / Private Labeler: MAXFIELD & OBERTON HOLDINGS LLC

REPORT
|
5/21/2012
|
20120423-CDEB2-2147468193

14 year old female accidently ingested 5 small rare earth magnets after ...
Incident Description: 14 year old female accidently ingested 5 small rare earth magnets after attempting to make a tongue ring out of them. She subsequently developed abdominal pain over the coarse of the next 24hrs requiring hospitalization. Medical management was attempted to ... (More)
Product: Building Sets
Product Description: small very powerful magnets about the size of a BB
Injury Info: Injury, Hospital Admission
Manufacturer / Importer / Private Labeler: MAXFIELD & OBERTON HOLDINGS LLC

REPORT
|
5/18/2012
|
20120420-C04A8-2147468264

2 yo boy swallowed "buckyballs" earth magnets, landed in stomach with large ...
Incident Description: 2 yo boy swallowed "buckyballs" earth magnets, landed in stomach with large portion of stomach mucosa stuck in between magnets. Was successfully removed endoscopically but led to superficial ulce

Someone needed surgery?

[Internetuser1248]

This in a country where banning assault weapons in off the table

Re:Someone needed surgery?

[EmagGeek]

A country that guarantees the right to keep and bear arms in its founding documents, but does not guarantee the right to abuse, neglect, and kill your children by being a bunch of irresponsible fuckwads.

Re:Only in America!

[JustOK]

Some are designed to lose money so that they can make a profit on other things.

Re:Blame Obama!

[electrofelix]

Also perhaps they are focusing on the wrong problem

Let's see - item sold to parents that results in 12 surgeries should be banned
Item sold to parent that resulted in ~5000 deaths among children per year in the US is just fine and dandy

http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/557291/Thousands-of-children-are-killed---.html

Dogs, Guns and Swimming Pools

[dadioflex]

All kill more kids every year than magnets. Personally I don't want any of them banned, just pointing out the stupidity.

Re:Blame Obama!

[RenderSeven]

Whereas a tort is a rich, usually multilayered, legal action that is filled with buttercreams, mousses, jams, fruits, and gobs of cash. Ordinarily, the victim of a tort is glazed and garnished. Thus the similarity in spelling.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[eugene ts wong]

No, Magneto. No, you cannot.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

You are reading old information

[pavon]

That link you posted is over a year old, and does not accurately reflect the situation today. Here is yesterday's announcement of the lawsuit CPSC has filed, and the actual text of the complaint(PDF).

Basically, the Buckyballs labeling was changed to indicate 14+ less than a month after being notified by the CPSC that they needed to do so (28-30 in PDF). Since then the CPSC has decided that no warnings, packaging or other changes can be effective at preventing kids from ingesting them (35-40,46-48), and therefore are seeking a complete stop-sale and full recall of all Buckyballs regardless of how they were labeled or are labeled in the future.

This is as bad as Zucker is describing it.

Where can I get some?

[Game Genie]

I've always wanted some of these, just never picked any up. Does anyone no where I can still buy some? (Never thought I would be searching the internet for illicit magnet dealers)

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[Rhys]

If you want to cook them from the inside out, why not just use a microwave?

Hint: if you haven't ever used a degausser, they can only operate for a limited time (due to internal resistance -> heating) and you wear the huge heavy gloves to hold the disk which will get what can be best described as "quite hot."

Do not taunt Super Happy Fun Ball

[travisbean]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CF0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbc.com%2Fsaturday-night-live%2Fvideo%2Fhappy-fun-ball%2F229058%2F&ei=pW4RUPaBOOjh0QGQkoGYDg&usg=AFQjCNEmsb3EqZ14AH3dNK9pDI8P5UvPLg&sig2=RWsFtT_g8b3Om1FxnMl_vQ

An apology

[geekoid]

Dear Slashdot posters:
Even though the only CPSC document I could fine yesterday where about labeling, today I found a more current document. I swear I looked all over their site yesterday and could find any other docs.
Well, it turns out I was wrong, and I apologize. The doc I posted regarding labeling in 2010 was not the most current.
Even though I did look, I take responsibility for posting that this was simply a labeling issue.

My Apologies, Geekoid.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[DrStoooopid]

It's called "Natural Selection" they're at the bottom of the food chain.

I remember a day when if you didn't listen to what your elders and put things in your mouth anyway, then you kind of have it coming.

Re:Only in America!

[oldmac31310]

Can't agree about the chocolate. It is way better than US chocolate but that is not saying much.

Re:Blame Obama!

[oldmac31310]

You mean tart.

Re:Blame Obama!

[oldmac31310]

oops, I mean that you mean 'tart'.

Re:Blame Obama!

[RenderSeven]

tort:torte :: tart:tarte, since I misspelled "tort" I intentionally misspelled "tart". Got more comments on misspelling tort than on dissing Obama, which has some significant philosophical implications for slashdot. Or maybe Im just a complete twite.

Actually, Headline Is Correct

[Slashdot Parent]

Actually, your link is from 2 years ago. The correct current link is here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In an effort to prevent children from suffering further harm, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff filed an administrative complaint today against Maxfield & Oberton Holdings LLC, of New York, N.Y., alleging that Buckyballs and Buckycubes contain a defect in the design, packaging, warnings, and instructions, which pose a substantial risk of injury to the public. The Commission voted 3-1 to approve the filing of the complaint, which seeks, among other things, an order that the firm stops selling Buckyballs and Buckycubes, notify the public of the defect, and offer consumers a full refund.

So no, this is not a labeling issue. They already corrected the labeling issue. This is about stopping all sales of Buckyballs. Headline is correct. Posting to undo my upmod of your comment because it turns out you are wrong.

I guess...

[AntEater]

I guess I'll have to go back to pulling the magnets out of hard drives.

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[mcgrew]

The proper moderation for a factually incorrect statement ("Linux has no GUI, you have to have a terminal open") is "overrated", not "troll". Better yet is to correct their ignorance with a reply.

If it's WILDLY inaccurate ("Windows is the safest, least crash-prone OS there is"), "Funny" might be appropriate.

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[LocalH]

It tells me that there are too few moderation options on /.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[trigggl]

But why do you need to waste money on a surgeon?

Can't you just put the kid in an MRI and rip the magnets out?

You've obviously never paid for an MRI before. I've had brain surgery cheaper.

Re: stupid trailer-park dumbass kids

[macraig]

That's an excellent suggestion. Where moderation is concerned, ALL posts should be anonymous to help preserve impartiality.

School me on the mechanism

[optimuscrying]

So the claims seem to focus on intestinal pinching, but if one were to swallow several at once, wouldn't they find each other before entering the intestines? Unless of course it's a retarded kid who wanted seconds. govs v darwin -- who wins in the long run btw if you like magnets, buy a few n52 mags and at least two discs 20mm diameter x 5mm or larger. those seem a safety hazard and they will shatter each other if not careful. the buckyballs seem to be at most n42 and are so small. cubes are not as fun.

Re:Is surgery really needed?

[sjames]

So, if more than one magnet is swallowed AND they are swallowed far enough apart that they don't just harmlessly stick to themselves AND they are in a place that can't adequately be reached by a scope or have already stuck together pinching intestine such that the scope can't separate them, THEN surgery would be needed.

The same could be said for other things....

[mark-t]

In particular, from TFA:

CPSC said Buckyballs and Buckycubes present a "substantial product hazard" and that warnings are not effective

The *EXACT* same thing could be said about cigarettes.

Re:Only in America!

[JustOK]

I know you are, but what am I?

$36 billion / hour

[CamoCoatJoe]

"Any child's life is worth more than $50 million," but isn't worth the five seconds needed to read the warning label before giving something to a kid. Apparently she thinks her time is worth $36 billion per hour.