4 ms·

Either there is something I don't understand about this whole story, or something is seriously wrong with people coming up with such bans. As far as I could un

by kruczek 12y ago

Either there is something I don't understand about this whole story, or something is seriously wrong with people coming up with such bans. As far as I could understand the only risk is for children to swallow these magnets? Or is there some other hazard due to them being magnets? If it's only about swallowing, then how is it different from any other object of similar size? If we ban them because they are "new and sufficiently rare", then how is it we don't ban all new products below certain size threshold? Everything is new in the beginning. Same with shiny and attractive, there are many such objects which can be swallowed (e.g. jewlery) and somehow these are not banned.

tripzilch 12y ago
The difference is[0] when you swallow not one, but two of these magnets. They might clonk together from different parts of the intestines and ultimately puncture them. And I'm not entirely convinced about safety rules "below a certain size threshold". For instance, refrigerators are invariably lethal when swallowed whole. [0] just to be clear: I'm not advocating to ban these toys in any country that can safely be trusted to handle Kinder surprise eggs.
goblin89 12y ago
Neither understood I, until I read carefully the copy on zenmagnets.com and found: > Zen Magnets may cause fatal intestinal pinching if swallowed. > Don't leave them around animals, or children who don't understand this. > US Government Age recommendation is 14 years. Then it dawned on me, and I thought that it's actually too mild a warning. What exactly children are expected to understand? that they shouldn't swallow those toys—of course they understand that, it's accidents that everyone's worried about. If I were the business owner, I'd prefer to err on the safe side: “Keep away from children”, “This is not your average swallowing hazard!”, and so on.

by kruczek 12y ago

tripzilch 12y ago

The difference is[0] when you swallow not one, but two of these magnets. They might clonk together from different parts of the intestines and ultimately puncture them. And I'm not entirely convinced about safety rules "below a certain size threshold". For instance, refrigerators are invariably lethal when swallowed whole. [0] just to be clear: I'm not advocating to ban these toys in any country that can safely be trusted to handle Kinder surprise eggs.

goblin89 12y ago

Neither understood I, until I read carefully the copy on zenmagnets.com and found: > Zen Magnets may cause fatal intestinal pinching if swallowed. > Don't leave them around animals, or children who don't understand this. > US Government Age recommendation is 14 years. Then it dawned on me, and I thought that it's actually too mild a warning. What exactly children are expected to understand? that they shouldn't swallow those toys—of course they understand that, it's accidents that everyone's worried about. If I were the business owner, I'd prefer to err on the safe side: “Keep away from children”, “This is not your average swallowing hazard!”, and so on.