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Six Retailers Announce Recall of Buckyballs and Buckycubes
thereitis writes "The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with six retailers, is announcing the voluntary recall of all Buckyballs and Buckycubes high-powered magnet sets due to ingestion hazard. CPSC continues to warn that these products contain defects in the design, warnings and instructions, which pose a substantial risk of injury and death to children and teenagers. An administrative complaint has been filed which is rare, as CPSC has filed only four administrative complaints in the past 11 years."
This follows last year's ban on buckyballs.
Why does this even need a warning? If you're too stupid not to understand to either A) not ingest these, or B) not give them to someone not old enough to know better, then by all means, swallow them all, then go get an MRI.
But if it's guns, well, we can't even suggest that background checks should be implemented or the NRA will unleash a titanic fury of political money to get what they want.
Why is it the governments job to parent. keep an eye on kids, teenagers? lol teenagers if they eat them that's natural selection
children, maybe teenagers?
come on thats not saftey that Darwin, if your teenager is eating magnets then wtf are they going to do with a car, or the right to vote OMFG
Why pandering government officials need to die screaming like pigs in Hell.
This is just ridiculous. Hell, just the infinitesimal decrease in future scientists because some kids won't be mesmerized will slow technological development enough to cause, by lack of invention, deaths to occur that wouldn't otherwise.
Lawyers are indistinguishable from a disease on the body of the populace. A parasite -- an organism that exists drawing resources from the host organism, and causing degradation to the host organism.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
My teenage boys enjoy them and so do I. Since they have been playing with them since they were children and we have not had a problem I think we are ok. Of course they are smart enough to not eat them since at least 7. They also have pocket knives and regularly start fires, I even have them use power tools. So far still count in base 10 and 2 working eyes.
My teenage boys enjoy them and so do I
I take this to mean that there are at least three of you.
So far still count in base 10 and 2 working eyes.
Two working eyes... You should have at least six of those. O nocuous magnets!
DATABASE WOW WOW
Nice to see that Maxfield & Oberton were willing to brave it out and stick up for themselves and our rights to own Buckyballs! Let's go see if they have any reaction to the news on their homepage.
Way to stick it to the man!? Now where do we get awesome magnets... - HEX
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
...only outlaws will have magnets.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. ~ Douglas Adams
Dude! Be careful with those parenting skills. Parents have been being arrested and their local police departments are trying to get their children taken away from them for doing such dangerous things to children as teaching them to be responsible, and letting them demonstrate those skills. It's a dangerous world out there for parents these days.
You never know...
There was a big hoo-ha in Australia about 6mo ago where a 12 year old kid swallowed a bunch of them that were sitting on a high shelf in his father's locked study. So the kid, who is 12 and should have known better, went into his fathers office, climbed up the shelf, pulled down metal balls and proceeded to eat them. The mother went on to campaign for them to be pulled from Australian stores, which they were 4 months later.
Now the infuriating thing about this is that because of one *incredibly* stupid kid everybody doesn't get some awesome toys. My 26 year old brother in law is pretty annoyed because he spends a lot of his free time tinkering with big blocks of them and now he can't get anymore. These are not children's toys and it is foolish to ban them entirely because some dumbass kid was stupid. By that logic you'd have to ban every adult product on the logic that it was not safe for children
I write professional videogame reviews! http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/
The risk for teenagers comes from attempts to use magnets to simulate piercings.
See "Magnet Ingestions in Children Presenting to United States Emergency Departments from 2002 to 2011." "A national estimate of 16,386 (95% CI: 12,175-20,598) children The incidence of visits increased 8.5-fold (0.45 per 100,000 to 3.75 per 100,000) from 2002 to 2011 with a 75% average annual increase per year. The majority of patients reported to have ingested magnets were under 5 years (54.7%). From 2009-2011 there was an increase in older children ingesting multiple small and/or round magnets, with a mean average age of 7.1+-0.56 years over the study period. "
I may not buy magnets because some parents are stupid enough to give high power magnets to kids?
That's messing with nature, weeding out those too stupid to breed and take care of their offspring. Sorry, but if you're stupid enough to think extra powerful magnets are something that belongs in your kids hands, your genes should go down the tubes.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Let's create a Buckyball singularity instead.
In news tonight the CPSC have called for more warning labels on things that could potentially in rare cases cause death or hospitalisation. This follows the single reported death due to ingestion of bucky balls, a popular product designed exclusively to kill babies. One Californian senator however says the CPSC is dragging its feet and has a long way to go to protect Americans. He has repeatedly criticized the CPSC over its lack of interest and regulation of gun sales urging both the department and retailers to place signs on all ammunition saying "Warning: May contain lead".
New Zealand has banned the importing for personal or consumer use of all extremely strong magnets that are small enough to be swallowed. One could get around that by importing large ones. but they pose a somewhat larger and more immediate hazard.
You can have my BuckyBalls when you pry them from my cold dead fingers!
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
They're banning molecules now? Time to get that petition to ban water going again...
Warning: toddlers might swallow
is a pretty common warning, but teenagers?
you boldy do what bno sane kids ever do and thus we need ot protect you even as an adult cause well your mentally challenged
bingo
and ill add i know of a case where a young lad was shot in face in a claifornia school not long ago...all he wanted to do was stop his sister from being harrassed by that kid.
Have gnu, will travel.
Not only will I not submit my sets for recall, I intend to buy more than the 6 sets I already have. If you're so fucking stupid that eat magnets, that's not my problem. And likewise, if you're too stupid to educate or protect your children, that's not my problem either.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Maybe the people who had issues with the buckyballs ordered the "assault buckyballs" instead of the normal one because we all know some are much more dangerous based on appearance.
All in the name of saving a handful of lives they say.
The success of Buckyballs was attributed to it's addictive nature and weird properties - magnetic rocks also known as Rare earth element(REE's). The idea in itself is great; the long term prosperity of this idea isn't.
The main component of a buckyball is Neodymium in which has several deposits around the world with the main REE deposits located in China with other deposits scattered around the world. In the past year, it's been reported several times that the Chinese government has very little interest in supplying the world with this mineral that is used more and more frequently in high-end technology. As restrictions have been placed on the import, a country must secure as much of the material as possible in the event that the unthinkable occurs.
As this is a voluntary recall, consider what will be done with the recalled products. Will they be sent back to China with a note about how unsafe it was for Americans and asking for a refund? Do you really believe that today's government is out to protect its citizens by such a trivial and mostly harmless toy?
South Carolina has introduced state legislation that would make possession or sale of spherical magnets smaller than 1 inch in diameter a Class C Felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison, and limits the sale or possession of ALL magnets that are "just magnets" to industrial and commercial use only. For residential use, under the new legislation, all magnets must be part of an assembly that cannot be ingested, and the magnets cannot be removable from the product.
Idiocracy. For the children.
Guns dont kill children buckyballs do
if they swallow them and thengo to get MRI
Local quarry to recall gravel because of swallowing hazard.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
There is no mention of what the design defect actually is.
I can't imagine many defects with a spherical magnet, other than it not being magnetic enough.
Maybe the "defect" is that it's too small? if it was 10x bigger, it would be harder to swallow, and would just crush your fingers instead...
I genuinely thought they were the carbon allotrope things when I read the title. Might be hard to recall those.
If your dumb enough to eat magnets or if you're to young to know better and someone lets you eat magnets then it's not the magnets fault. We need to stop getting rid or dangerous or potentially dangerous toys because retarded kids and sorry excuse for parents don't pay attention. What's next, do I have to get rid of my bench power supply's? They can push high AMP's out, so a kid could hurt themselves or an adult. Do I have to get rid of high power computer fans because a kid could stick it's finger in one? The answer should and better be NO! Stupid people and bad parents shouldn't lead to product recalls, if you raise your kids properly and if you pay attention when they're young then it's not an issue. I say let the "dangerous" products exist and use them to "weed" out the stupid idiots in society. You'll get one or two people who by complete accident get hurt and didn't mean to but for the most part you'll quickly find out that many people are still at an evolution point of crap throwing ape's.
Does anyone have any good statistics on the number of people actually injured by ingesting magnets? How does it compare the to the number of children seriously injured by ingesting alcohol, cigarettes or bullets?
Buckeyballs brought the dangers of magnet ingestion to everyone's attention. That is not a bad thing! Small, powerful magnets are not going away (I hope) and scanning for magnet ingestion may need to be a routine test for kids.
Hardware stores have decided to recall all screws, nails and tools with sharp edges. ...
Supermarkets and kitchen stores are recalling all knives and blenders.
Seriously, walk into retail store and you will find something in every department that if used improperly could lead to death. Can you choke of a sock? is it healthy. to swallow a staple?
>These products contain defects in the design, warnings and instructions, which pose a substantial risk of injury and death to children and teenagers.
Too bad the state cannot be sued for libel.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
This comment is known to the state of California to contain viewpoints that may cause cancer.
Has anyone approached the issue from the Second Amendment angle? Do these magnets have some sort of weapons potential that the government does not want more people to know about? Are they using accidental ingestion by children as a red herring?
Fuck yoooooooouuuuuuu!!!!
Look, you can't have people with unsupervised mass accelerators that can fire a bucky ball through the moon, just out firing willynilly about the landscape. It's down right rude, man! Think about it! Nor can you expound upon the issue in public, lest you arouse the leviathan of curiosity, "gauss rifle...wtf is that?" And there we are, with yet another 2nd Amendment crisis on our hands. By the way, I think bullets are a choking hazard as well.
There are some people who are dangerous with a sharp stick in their hand, right? Qualifications is all I'm saying.
Take the Red Pill.
http://dx.com/s/magnetic+balls
http://dx.com/p/neodymium-nib-magnet-spheres-6mm-20-pack-13503?rt=1&p=6&m=1&r=4&k=1&t=1&s=&u=13503
Hint: Don't buy the colored ones. The paint chips off pretty easily from those but the chrome ones seem to be fine. I'll be ordering some more in case they try to seal the border on these the way they did with the lasers
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Typical Government over-reaching of a GREAT Product. China will begin mass production of them and that'll be the end of another product made in the US - of course the technology for these magnets are used in many other products. Way to kill jobs Obama....
I'm pretty sure that federal government goons have killed far more children than these magnets have.
I am so sick of this government at all levels and "progressives". It is time for a civil war.
I'll take a powerful electric motor, attach it to two half-meter-long carbon fiber blades, and spin them at 2500 RPM. No safety cage; heck, the toy won't even be attached to anything to prevent it from moving around. Still perfectly legal. I guess the CPSC figures that hazard is obvious enough even for a dimwitted child, but that's only true for now.
When I was living in the US, I enjoyed showing my German friends labels from water bottles that listed 0% fat, with the comment: "Look, they sell fat-free water in the US, quite unlike all the fatty water that is being sold in Germany!" ;-)
When 1person suffers from a delusion,it is called insanity.When many people suffer from a delusion,it is called religion
"which pose a substantial risk of injury and death to children and teenagers" ..if you're over the age of 5 and still swallowing random shit.. seek professional help.
And only 53 of them required "medical intervention". This is an absolute non-risk. Only credible explanation for this "alert": Some bureaucrats want more importance and are willing to create a lot of fear to get it. That is terrorism at its best. Sadly, these despicable cretins will get away with it as being afraid is now so deeply ingrained in US culture that people probably would not feel right without it.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Buckyballs are too dangerous for kids. Kids need guns, not buckyballs.
When are we going to stop catering to the stupid? If they are not competent enough to live safely, they should die. It is NOT the governments ( or tax payers .. ) job to babysit citizens.
"At least" they've only gone after Buckyballs, not the other manufacturers.
"And when they came for me there was no one to speak up"
getting my BuckyBalls!!
So where can I go sign off on being an adult and buy some of these recalled inventory then?
I love my buckyballs. I don't like a stupid nanny state telling me not to have them. There are all kinds of things around the house that kids shouldn't eat. What would only slightly annoy me would be a greater warning. Explain to people the risk. Not just a generalized "Keep away from small children." But an explanation about the balls pinching etc.
So, what you are saying is that it is dangerous for kids and teenagers to ingest these, but adults should be able to ingest them without any problems.
Why do they make magnets so tasty, if we're not supposed to eat them?
they are available in bulk.
http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/magnet-ball.html
I heard of this decision a couple of years ago, but I didn't remember the name. Wickard v. Filburn. Gosh, what an awful, awful decision that was.
I used to know a guy who was allergic to peanuts, and his son was allergic to all nuts except peanuts. That explains it, then.
One thing to bear in mind is that processing facilities handle more than one product; I've seen warnings on wheat products that they may contain contain traces of soya or mustard. It's possible then that peanuts may contain nuts as a contaminant.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Isn't this simply a Darwin test? - You know to test if you're too stupid to be allowed to procreate?
I know that small children may be unable to read the warning etc. but the parents sure aren't and thus we simply catch up with the test, removing the children of too stupid parents later than per-conception...
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
Yep, let's recall and BAN sales of a kick ass product because people are too stupid and idiotic to NOT eat thing that isn't food! Parents who let their kids play unsupervised with these should be the ones on trial here.
It would be about the same if someone ran a stop sign and hit me so I sued the car company.
Sickening.
Figured I'd include the obligatory reference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gzDC-2ZO8I
If these are being sold as toys, then I really don't have a problem with the recall. Magnets of this strength are not toys, even for some adults I have known! swallowing them is serious business. They cause all kinds of trouble, PAINFUL trouble and must be removed surgically if there is more than just one. I have been pinched by my "toys" many times, and I know several other Big boys who have been "damaged" playing with Neos. These things are really bad news for little kids who don't know any better. Two or more swallowed don't just create a bowel obstruction, they can literally tie the bowel in a knot and they will NOT come out on their own. I can see selling them as scientific study aids, or scientific "toys" for those 13 and older, but I would not sell them in a toy store or the toy section of the store.
Most people are mostly good most of the time.
I'm putting mine next to my Lawn Darts
re: everything, including growing your own crops rather than buying them, is interstate commerce now [emphasis mine, on the word "now"]
.
It's been that way since that decision was made in 1942, not so much now. I'm surprised that they're not attacking GNU and Linux for depriving the private corporations from profiting maximally on software based on this decision alone. Shimmeny-crickets, I hope I didn't just give them an idea for a new way to attack Free and Open Source Software!