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.

Comments

Wait a minute?

[jetkust]

Is there anything that doesn't explode?

Re:Wait a minute?

[n329619]

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

Good.

[PopeRatzo]

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.

The future

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:The future

[arth1]

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

Re:The future

[Fly Swatter]

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.

Re: The future

[Jesus H Rolle]

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.

Re:The future

[schleimkeim]

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?!

Re:The future

[pslytely psycho]

'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.

Re:The future

[rgbatduke]

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.

Re:The future

[Minupla]

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

Re:The future

[stabiesoft]

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

Brilliant

[arth1]

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.

Re: Brilliant

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re: Brilliant

[JaredOfEuropa]

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

that's progress

[sheramil]

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.

been there, done that

[ArylAkamov]

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.

Burn and Off

[markdavis]

>"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).

Self destruct

[thegreatbob]

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.

Jobs: You're holding it wrong

[Tablizer]

It's a trainer for a Galaxy Note 7.

Wait, what?

[backslashdot]

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?

Re:When I was a kid...

[stealth_finger]

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