According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, two companies are recalling their high-powered magnet products over concerns that they pose an ingestion hazard to kids. This is a serious injury threat and one that our Boston child injury lawyers take seriously.
The first recall involves approximately 4,200 Nanospheres Magnetic Desk Toys. The product consists of about 230 small magnets that are massed together and Kringles Toys and Gifts manufactured them.
Because the magnets are so small, they are easy for a young child to put in the mouth and swallow. In the event that a child were to swallow more than one of these magnets, the small pieces may become to attracted to each other and join together inside the intestines, potentially causing perforations, tissue damage, obstructions, sepsis, permanent injuries, and even death.
While The CPSC has received no injury/incident reports related to this particular product, there have been 80 ingestion incident reports involving other powerful magnets. 79 of the reports noted that medical intervention was necessary.
In the other announcement, also over similar safety concerns, SCS Direct is recalling about 106,000 Magnet Balls® Manipulative Magnet Sets. Each unit comes with 216 high-powered magnets that are spherical in shape. Again, no related injuries or incidents have been reported so far.
Small magnet parts are easily separated and easy to swallow and the injury risks they pose are very serious. Last year, the Public Interest Research Group even reported that according to government estimates, between 2009 and 2011 about 1,700 ER visits took place because a child had swallowed high-powered magnets. (It’s not just young children. Older kids have also accidentally ingested the small parts by putting them into their mouths and pretending they are tongue piercings.)
You may be able to pursue a Boston products liability case from the manufacturer, distributor, or seller of your product because of a design defect, manufacturing defect, or due to a failure to warn.
Related Web Resources:
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
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