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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.

62 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Wait a minute? by jetkust · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is there anything that doesn't explode?

    1. Re: Wait a minute? by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: 1

      I could take this one of two ways. One, I railroad you with a "Yoda Ate My Balls" webring link.

      Or the other, I refer you to some N64 Goldeneye video where explosions happen. Unfortunately, I could not find any videos to exploding computer monitors or exploding chairs or exploding fish tanks. For those who were born after the days of N64 like BeauHD, basically if you shot at anything even with the Dustshovel or PP7 (PPK), it would explode.

      Of course, you can thank me for this video by moderating me insightful. ;)

      --GBS

    2. Re: Wait a minute? by lucm · · Score: 1

      ;)

      Unless you're a teenage girl, you already have squandered your monthly allowance of smileys.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    3. Re:Wait a minute? by n329619 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I tried to bend a spoon with my mind the other day. My mind exploded, but the spoon didn't budge or explode.

    4. Re:Wait a minute? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      You forgot the most important lesson. There is no spoon.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    5. Re:Wait a minute? by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

      Is there anything that doesn't explode?

      That's pretty much Michael Bay's mantra.

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  2. Good. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.
    1. Re:Good. by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      I have never seen anybody using one of these spinners. Just this week, I have now seen them for sale. I was actually thinking this was a 4chan joke or something.

      Heck, I thought they were some kind of sex toy, which made all this talk of kids collecting them and explosions quite disturbing.

    2. Re: Good. by laie_techie · · Score: 1

      How about we all keep being crazy until your head explodes? Think about it. Battery powered spinners! Spinning the spinner is too hard we better automate the spinning!

      The batteries power LE.Ds, not to actually cause it to spin

    3. Re: Good. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Hurr durr I'm so trendy because I can hate on people that drive an arbitrary brand of car for no reason at all. Look how e-cool I am!

      Let's take a little poll:

      Slashdot users: How bad are BMW drivers?

      1) bad
      2) really bad
      3) terrible human beings that need a smack
      4) fucking awful, they should all die in fiery wrecks.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. The future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

    1. Re:The future by arth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Kids of the past had their fad toys too.
      Clackers, yo-yos, rubber wristbands, rubik's cube, hula hoops, marbles...

    2. Re:The future by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No comparison. Most of those take hand-eye coordination or brains. The first thing you do with a spinner is also the only thing you do, but I guess that fits in with the modern attention span.

      I remember taking the heads out of a broken VCR, and spinning it. Those bearings and all that mass made it spin for a pretty long time. It was fun maybe twice.

    3. Re:The future by Trogre · · Score: 1

      I get your point but:

      Does it hover?
      Yes

      Fly?
      Yes

      Can you do any tricks with it?
      Yes

      You just described mini-drones, which lots of kids have now.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    4. Re: The future by Jesus+H+Rolle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I bought 4 while drunk. Are there tricks or something? Surely they can't be this boring. At least the pet rock gave you a focus for your affection. And the guy made a million bucks.

    5. Re:The future by schleimkeim · · Score: 2

      Clackers, yo-yos, rubber wristbands, rubik's cube, hula hoops, marbles...

      So you're telling me that you were to poor to get a tamagotchi in 1997?!

    6. Re:The future by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 2

      '97?
      All of those items are WAY older than that. The Clackers were pulled off the market in the '70's as they had a tendency to shatter. Yo-yo's date to ancient China. Rubber wristbands....those might be newer,but Rubik's Cube is from the mid '70's, Hula Hoops, late '50's, and marbles date to at least the Roman Empire.
      By the time Tamagotchi's appeared, I was in my 30's, and I had played with all of the listed stuff except the rubber wrist bands by the time I graduated in '77.

      My favorite Clackers were the ones coated in a thin layer of gunpowder. They sparked and popped when you used them, and burning them or crushing them with a sledgehammer was a 'blast!'
      Needless to say, they were not on the market for very long at all.

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    7. Re:The future by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      '97? All of those items are WAY older than that. The Clackers were pulled off the market in the '70's as they had a tendency to shatter. Yo-yo's date to ancient China. Rubber wristbands....those might be newer,but Rubik's Cube is from the mid '70's, Hula Hoops, late '50's, and marbles date to at least the Roman Empire. By the time Tamagotchi's appeared, I was in my 30's, and I had played with all of the listed stuff except the rubber wrist bands by the time I graduated in '77. My favorite Clackers were the ones coated in a thin layer of gunpowder. They sparked and popped when you used them, and burning them or crushing them with a sledgehammer was a 'blast!' Needless to say, they were not on the market for very long at all.

      Well shoot, you must remember cap guns. If you were experiment-oriented, how you could also get them to pop with a hammer... and fold them over to pop two, three, four at a time. The pre-coddling era: remember lawn jarts?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    8. Re:The future by rgbatduke · · Score: 2

      And peel back the paper to expose the powder and use a nail to pop it directly. And string them together to make a fuse. And... yeah. Good times.

      I too, can't understand why anybody would ever get a spinner. At first I thought they were a version of gyroscopic wrist trainers:

      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F...

      that required a "trick" to keep moving, but ten seconds of examination and experimentation revealed that they are not. And gyroscopic wrist trainers are already pretty boring, but at least there you have to "do" something and you can fix them up with pretty lights and so on too. Spinners aren't even a good meditation aid -- they demand exactly the wrong kind of attention to keep going and they are not a useful focus.

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    9. Re:The future by rgbatduke · · Score: 1

      My journey has been longer, padawan. But you are mistaken: we do have both hover cars and hover boards. They are just expensive and dangerous. What did you expect? Antigravity? Suspension of the laws of physics? Personally I was hoping for antigravity capable of floating a car-sized mass with a tiny trickle of current, reorientable as a gravity-based drive. But somewhere back in the 70's and early 80's I finished my physics degrees and alas, there was no plausible antigravity anywhere to be found. Still isn't. Especially one that would work on a first-law-violating trickle of current.

      Sigh.

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
    10. Re:The future by Minupla · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As a parent of an up and coming geekling, it annoys me immensely how difficult it is to get a hold of chemistry sets contain, you know, chemicals!

      90% of them are reduced to baking soda and vinegar, which you have to supply. They include the safety goggles tho, sheesh.

      Min

      --
      On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
    11. Re: The future by timrod · · Score: 1

      A kid from 1997 taking a time machine to 2017 would most likely be more interested in the time machine than they would be in anything in 2017. Sure, there'd be the initial "Oh my god, they're on the Playstation 4 now? We only just got the first one!" reaction but you know those kids would take that time machine and try to tame a dinosaur or get a flying car.

    12. Re:The future by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Well shoot, you must remember cap guns. If you were experiment-oriented, how you could also get them to pop with a hammer... and fold them over to pop two, three, four at a time.

      Cap guns? Expensive and underwhelming!
      Match heads in tin foil was all the rage. Leave the match stick on and you got a rocket or a shell, depending on how hard the tin foil was wrapped. Cut the stick off and you had a grenade. Add a tiny piece of a candle, and you had a smoke bomb. Add some steel wool for additional pyrotechnics.
      And if someone managed to purloin some fireplace matches, it was even more awesome...

    13. Re:The future by stabiesoft · · Score: 2

      Watching the VCR thread the tape around the heads, now that was entertaining.

    14. Re:The future by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      It's Just a high tech pet rock, but not as useful.

    15. Re:The future by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I miss the Radio Shack 100-in-1 electronics kit. I was way to young to understand a lot of things in it, even after reading the manual, so it was mostly following existing instructions and whenever I made my own design it never worked. Now though I know the math and things would make much more sense. The only similar kits I see in stores tend to be very dumbed down and for one project only.

      For chemistry set, I got a hand me down from the high school chemistry teacher who gave it to my dad. So the cooler chemicals were partially used up and others had gotten some moisture. But it was very much a 60s era set with glass containers instead of plastic.

    16. Re: The future by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Damn kids, get off my lawn!

    17. Re:The future by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Sounds like my pet bee, Eric.

    18. Re: The future by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      Bought my first one (called a 'Magic Cube' at the time) in 1974 as a sophomore in high school.While the craze peaked in the early '80's they were extremely popular from the mid '70's on.

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    19. Re:The future by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      I loved Jarts. Every family Bar-b-q out came the Jarts.
      As for caps, an entire box smacked with a hammer made quite a boom and fire.
      Piece of pipe, some black powder or firecrackers and some tissue made a pretty cool bee-bee shotgun too!
      (although sometimes it was closer to a pipe bomb than a shotgun)

      Sigh, my grandkids will never know the fun and terror of coming home all bloodied and trying to explain what happened to your mom without admitting you were making ant hill bombs in the woods...
      Then she cleaned you up, plucked the broken glass out of your face and sent you back outside with a stern warning not to do that again.

      Damn but childhood was fun back then....

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    20. Re:The future by Minupla · · Score: 1

      I find the electronics side stuff to be in better shape although that might be more because of the circles my daughter fell into by accident of my profession.

      Snap circuits aren't bad as a 100 in 1 replacement, a bit dumbed down but essentially replaces spring terminals and jumper wire with coat-button snaps.

      Beyond that, I owe the crew in the hardware hacking village at Defcon a big debt of thanks for teaching a 5 year old how to solder and giving her kits to put together each year she went down there. Aside from being a good way to learn some electronics skills, the self-image of being a kid who can solder provided her with armor against society's attempts to pigeonhole her. She defines her own self-image and screw everyone else. You should hear her rant about toy stores with Girls sections and Boy sections. She shops happily on both sides.

      Min

      --
      On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
  4. Brilliant by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re: Brilliant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      In some emergency room, somewhere, there is a doctor trying to figure out how to get one out of somebody's ass... and wondering how they got it up there.

    2. Re: Brilliant by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Doctors stopped wondering about the how and why of stuff up people's assholes a loooong time ago.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    3. Re:Brilliant by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1
      --
      I tend to rant.
    4. Re: Brilliant by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      Doctors stopped wondering about the how and why of stuff up people's assholes a loooong time ago.

      Yeah, I think they cover that during either med school or residency.

      People put all manner of strange things into their own and each other's anuses.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    5. Re: Brilliant by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I asked a friend of mine who happens to be a proctologist whether it's true that they have a box where they collect the items they pull out of people's rectums. His answer?

      "A box? We have a locker. And we empty it out twice a year"

      Mind you, this is a small hospital he's working at... People. Please. Be sensible when you shove stuff up your rear. Make sure it has a handle, and make sure that handle can't break off.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re: Brilliant by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Do you think those handles are safe enough?

      https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    7. Re: Brilliant by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      "Honey, do you remember where I put my car keys?"

  5. that's progress by sheramil · · Score: 2

    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.

  6. been there, done that by ArylAkamov · · Score: 2

    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.

  7. Burn and Off by markdavis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >"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).

    1. Re: Burn and Off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, Lithium batteries can burn very violently, but there's no detonation, shrapnel injuries are highly unlikely, and it's generally a better situation involving petrol and fire

    2. Re:Burn and Off by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      FUD. Gasoline (petrol) burns at 945 Celsius, and has some reported explosive value, while:

      The Risk of Exploding Lithium Ion Batteries - Techlicious https://www.techlicious.com/bl... Aug 7, 2013 - As the video below from computer support company PC Pitstop shows, lithium ion battery fires not only burn extremely hot (up to 1000 degrees fahrenheit), but can explode, sending chunks of burning metal across the room.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

  8. Self destruct by thegreatbob · · Score: 2

    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...
    1. Re:Self destruct by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Dagger of the mind.

  9. Be interesting to see where they came from by Snotnose · · Score: 1

    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.

  10. Only REAL Ninja Spinners! by Templer421 · · Score: 1

    Don't rely on cheap Chinese copies! Only REAL Japanese made Ninja spinners reliably explode!

  11. Jobs: You're holding it wrong by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a trainer for a Galaxy Note 7.

  12. Wait, what? by backslashdot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Wait, what? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      That was the first thought that I had. There must actually be people who are just too lazy to spin the damn things themselves. However, without RTFA I would guess the power is for adding lights/sounds so that a user's attention can be engrossed even more in something that really shouldn't be taking any attention.

    2. Re:Wait, what? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I've seen battery operated lollipop spinners so you don't have to turn the lolly in your mouth yourself, ya know?

      THAT is the epitome of lazy!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  13. Re:BATTERIES - IT'S THE BOMB ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The current crop of mass produced Li-Po batteries are next to useless. When they were a new thing we used to torture 2.7Ah 5C batteries by putting them into electric hotliners (radio controlled gliders) drawing anywhere up to 100 amps on climb out and I never had one explode or catch fire. The Ni-Cd or Ni-MH battery packs powering the radio receivers were more problematic.

  14. Natural by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Selection

  15. Re:Bye Bye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Most if not all schools in my area banned them almost as soon as they appeared. Because while they can have some benefit for an ADHD student, it's almost always at the expense of distracting the other students. And then of course every non-ADHD student wants one to play with. A fidget cube gives the same calming benefit while remaining unobtrusively hidden in the student's hand or pocket and is mostly quiet (a couple actions can have quiet clicks to them). Meanwhile the spinner has to be held away from the body, clothing or furniture so it can spin, so it's held out where others can see it and it distracts them.

    They have been turned into collectables: How many different styles do you own? Which ones spin the best?

    My kids have spinners, they have been told in no uncertain terms that the spinners do not go to school. My ADHD son does take his fidget cube and his teacher said last year that it does help my son focus, does not distract the other students and is welcome in the classroom. We will check with the new teacher this next week to make sure the cube will be allowed before it goes to school this coming school year..

  16. What would Steve Jobs... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    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!
  17. Re:When I was a kid... by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

    Yoyos were shit then and they are shit now. No one ever doing tricks with them was cool to anyone but themselves.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  18. I didn't know that Samsung... by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

    ...was also in the business of fidget spinners!

  19. I prefer ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... the classicfidget toys.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  20. Do people not know what "explode" even means? by hackel · · Score: 1

    "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?

    1. Re:Do people not know what "explode" even means? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      They probably have seen too many bad movies....

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  21. Probably works as intended... by gweihir · · Score: 1

    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.