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US Product Safety Commission Warns That Some Fidget Spinners Explode (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Fidget spinners are supposed to be calming and fun, especially for students struggling to focus. But after some dangerous incidents involving the popular gizmos, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued new fidget spinner safety guidance for consumers and businesses. There have been a handful of choking incidents reported with the toys, as well as two instances of battery-operated spinners catching on fire and another incident in which a fidget spinner melted, the agency said. No deaths have been reported. The agency also issued safety guidance on battery-operated fidget spinners. Consumers should always be present when the product is charging, never charge it overnight and always use the cable it came with, the statement said. Users should unplug their spinner immediately once it's fully charged and make sure they have working smoke detectors in their home.
"As the agency investigates some reported incidents associated with this popular product, fidget spinner users or potential buyers should take some precautions," Ann Marie Buerkle, acting chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in a statement. "Keep them from small children; the plastic and metal spinners can break and release small pieces that can be a choking hazard; and older children should not put fidget spinners in their mouths." Fidget spinners should be kept away from children under the age of 3, the statement said.
"As the agency investigates some reported incidents associated with this popular product, fidget spinner users or potential buyers should take some precautions," Ann Marie Buerkle, acting chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in a statement. "Keep them from small children; the plastic and metal spinners can break and release small pieces that can be a choking hazard; and older children should not put fidget spinners in their mouths." Fidget spinners should be kept away from children under the age of 3, the statement said.
Is there anything that doesn't explode?
Every fidget spinner that explodes is a benefit to mankind. If we can get Apple Watches and BMWs to start exploding, we might actually survive as a species.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Imagine being a kid in 1997 and taking a time-machine to the year 2017. What is this brand new invention every kid is obsessed with? Does it hover? Fly? Can you do any tricks with it?
No, but it spiiiiins
older children should not put fidget spinners in their mouths
Older children should know what goes in their mouth.
If not, they really need to be treated as mentally ill and watched 24/7.
"Consumers should always be present when the product is charging."
I have had other battery operated products burst into flames while charging.
Is it just me? I wonder how often this happens.
take a simple toy made of three small bearings
add a battery and LEDs.
Bruce Sterling was right about history. exploding fidget spinners is the epitome of Atemporality.
They explode really well when the center bearing is clamped in a bench vice and you spin it with 150psi. It even embedded a bearing in the drywall.
>"US Product Safety Commission Warns That Some Fidget Spinners Explode"
More media sensationalism. No phone/toy/whatever "explodes." But anything with a Lithium battery has the potential to melt, burn, even burn rapidly or violently... but that is not an "EXPLOSION". Of course, saying "a fire" is so less exciting or riveting than using extreme words like "EXPLODED!!!!!"
>"Fidget spinners are supposed to be calming and fun, especially for students struggling to focus."
Here is a better tip- turn off your phone!
>"There have been a handful of choking incidents"
And another tip- don't put toys, pens, currency, rocks, pets, batteries, phones, remotes, or other such things in your mouth. And keep anything that can be put in the mouth or break into pieces away from small children (duh).
The Russian one comes out clearer on my monitor for some reason.
--GBS
I had a fidget spinner, and ours NEVER exploded. I broke a window with mine once, but hey... Our fidget spinners were far better and more complex than today's. Ours had strings that wound 'round a central shaft that connected two round masses that stored and expended energy added to the system by the hand of the child, (generally,) using it. We fidgeted with them for hours on end, in some cases, and even had fidgeting contests to see who could do it better!
Rather than three lobes, our fidget spinners had smoothly rotating mass, and the string and axle combination was used to exchange potential energy, (with the flick of a wrist to get them started,) to rotary kinetic energy, and then when the string was completely played out and the spinner had reached the end of its travel, the angular momentum would cause a similar but reversed exchange to occur, where its rate of spin would slow, as it got most (but per the laws of thermodynamics, not all...) of its potential energy BACK.
Rather than having lobes and bearings as today's do, ours were generally, (apart from the rope,) simple, one-piece affairs, rather like spools with the parts adjoining the axle rising far and away from it, constraining the string in such a way as to make tangles difficult (though of course not impossible).
We called our simple fidget spinner by an acronym, short for You Only Yelp Once, or "Y.O.Y.O." for short.
There was a company that made lots of high-performance fidget spinners, called, "Duncan," if I recall correctly.
Though if you throw one in the direction of a large, brittle pane of glass you CAN break it, as I learned around the age of 5 when trying to hand one abruptly to my brother who'd been standing near the window, it CAN shatter the hell out of it.
But ours... NEVER exploded. If you find a report that says one of OUR, 1970's or 80's or 90's era, (or earlier, but that'd be before my time,) Y.O.Y.O. fidget spinners exploded, the report is false, don't you believe it.
Maybe kids today should play with some of THEM instead... shit, one could probably MAKE one out of common household items, or 3-D print it, or just say "Magical Technology Fairy, Order me a YOYO" and have one within a day.
LOL!
I feel like putting lights/electronics on/in these things defeats their entire purpose. I was under the impression that they were intended to be a minor vent for fidgetiness, not a distractotron.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
I'm guessing the explody ones are from China. Land of the "safety? We don't need no stinkin safety! We'll poison your pets, counterfeit your F16 bolts, and put explody batteries in everything from spinners to hoverboards."
I could be wrong here, but I'd put money on the fact the hot ones are from China.
Like pogs (fears of people sharpening the metal slammers) and those metal slap bracelets (the metal edges could slit wrists), these too will be shortly banned by schools. Too bad the companies haven't been able to turn them into collectables. How many spinners can spin on your finger!
Don't rely on cheap Chinese copies! Only REAL Japanese made Ninja spinners reliably explode!
This is why we will all go extinct.
It's a trainer for a Galaxy Note 7.
Table-ized A.I.
A battery operated fidget spinner? Are you kidding me, is this for real? How lazy do you have to be?
Hmm.. where do I get one?
If you remember POTUSSR's promise, for every rule they create, they cancel two others.
So this is cover for cancelling some other rules that are more important.
Selection
say to a room full of ADHD kids with spinners? You're fidgeting wrong....
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Now they only need an app to explode them on command or through a timer, fit a magnet and make them a little more aerodynamic.
Doctors play this song in their head every time someone comes into the emergency room with something stuck up their butt.
...was also in the business of fidget spinners!
Have gnu, will travel.
"two instances of battery-operated spinners catching on fire and another incident in which a fidget spinner melted"
Neither of these things is the same as "exploding." Neither of the linked pages refer to "exploding" in any way. Is BeauHD simply illiterate?
Is there any way to increase the rate of explosion?
Wouldn't is be safer to play with a loaded gun?
My guess would be that such an explosion probably will cure fidgeting permanently...
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.