Recent research provides a clear example of the dangers of deregulation. The study found that cells at the poison center involving children who swallow powerful magnets rose significantly in the US after 2017 following the lifting of a ban on these products enacted years earlier.
The powerful magnets (10 to 30 times more powerful than the typical version) come from rare earth metals and started appearing in children’s toys and adult products such as desk toys around the early 2000s. Of course, any small object can be potentially dangerous to children, who tend to put things in their mouth and swallow or choke on them. But if there are more than one of these magnets swallowed (or a magnet and another piece of metal), the strong pull between them can damage the intestines or cause blockages. In the worst cases, victims died or needed emergency surgery to remove parts of their intestines.
In 2012, the Consumer Product Safety Commission began to crack down on the sale of these magnets in toys through voluntary recalls. By 2014, a new federal rule essentially banned them from the market. However, in late 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals dropped the rule and the magnets were widely available again in 2018.
This investigation, published in the Journal of Pediatrics in late January, examined how the policy changes could have affected the prevalence of these injuries. They analyzed national poison control data from 2008 to 2019, looking specifically at calls involving children under the age of 19 who swallowed magnets.
G / O Media can receive a commission
In total, there were just over 5,700 magnet-related calls during that period. Compared to the period from 2008 to 2011, the average number of these calls per year decreased by 33% from 2012 to 2017. But once the magnets returned, the call skyrocketed. In 2018 and 2019, the average number of calls per year increased by 444% compared to the period when the magnets were banned. The number of calls that deserved serious medical attention, such as hospitalization, also increased by 355%. In addition, 39% of all magnet-related calls in the study occurred in those two years alone.
Poison control calls do not explain every serious injury that occurs in the US, so the study’s conclusions are not necessarily representative of how dangerous these magnets are. But other recent research has shown a similar pattern using reliable injury data. An investigation published in December 2020, for example, found that the number of magnet-related visits to the A&E among children increased by 82% between 2017 and 2019 compared to the years 2013 to 2016. Another study in 2017 found it that between 2010 and 2015, at least 15,000 children in the US with magnet-related injuries went to the ER, but the cases started to decline after the CSPC’s actions in 2012.
While at least one company has recently pledged To stop making products with powerful magnets after a lengthy legal battle with the CSPC, the researchers warn that sweeping changes will be needed to really address the problem. In the current study, for example, the rate of these poison control calls has also increased for older children. Teens may not swallow these magnets intentionally as often as small children, but they can still accidentally swallow them when using them as fake tongues or lip piercings.
“These results reflect the increased need for preventive or legislative efforts,” the study authors wrote.