Retailers offload magnets ahead of ban on toy
THE MOTHER of a boy who required life-saving surgery after swallowing super-strong magnets is appalled retailers are offloading them cheaply ahead of a nationwide ban.
Colleen Daymond- King’s son John, 11, accidentally swallowed nine ball-bearing-sized magnets he was playing with during a televised Rugby World Cup game more than a year ago, but kept quiet as he thought he might be in trouble.
John suffered two weeks of intense pain and three hospital visits before doctors realised his intestines were pinched and the magnets would not pass through by themselves, she said.
Parents’ groups and health authorities have since been alerted to the danger after at least one child overseas was killed and hundreds injured. An Auckland toddler also required surgery.
Importers have been selling the magnetic desk toys, known as Buckyballs or Neocubes, at knockdown prices before a ban planned last week by Consumer Affairs Minister Simon Bridges.
Specialist magnet retailer Dangerousmagnets.co.nz warned people to keep them away from children and noted they were about to be banned.
Magneticmagnets. co. nz also warned buyers of the dangers of Neocubes before stating they ‘‘will
Magneticmagnets.co.nz also warned buyers of the dangers of Neocubes before stating they ‘will be barred from New Zealand probably by the end of January. So we are selling our stock below cost’.
be barred from New Zealand probably by the end of January. So we are selling our stock below cost’’.
An unbranded version of the desk toys popped up last Monday at a reduced price on the jointly owned daily deal sites Daily Do, Groupy and Yazoom, selling on behalf of Luxor Trading. The advertisements did not mention the danger but said the toys were not suitable for under-13s.
The offer prompted the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to email Daily Do warning a ban was imminent, said managing director Dave Healy.
The site was seeking advice about whether the sale had raised any legal issues. It would not sell them again. ‘‘We did sell them a while ago so it seemed OK. This time around we didn’t sell as many,’’ he said.
Similar magnets were listed Sella.co.nz and Trade Me.
Neodymium magnets, the most widely used type of rare- earth magnet, are used in motors in cordless tools, hard disk drives, and magnetic fasteners as well as ‘‘ addictive’’ desk toys such as Buckyballs and Neocubes, which can be moulded into different shapes.
A New York doctor, Bryan Rudolph, a fellow in the paediatric gastroenterology division of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, contacted the Sunday StarTimes this month saying thousands of cases have been documented of children swallowing any of the 216 magnets that are in each magnet set.
‘‘It took the paediatric gastroenterology community in the US a very long time to recognise the danger,’’ he said.
Rudolph said that as the products were no longer being sold in the US, the manufacturers ‘‘will ship them to the rest of the world.
on It would be easy New Zealand’’.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission ( CPSC) has proposed new standards and the main US Buckyball importer, Maxfield & Oberton, is winding up.
Rudolph said the outcomes from magnet ingestions in children had been horrific: death, short bowel syndrome and significant intestinal resections.
Daymond- King said the tiny balls were nothing like the strength of ordinary fridge magnets. ‘‘It is hard to pull two of them apart in your hands.’’
Her son was now afraid of pain and had given up karate and other sports. He suffered ongoing discomfort from internal scarring, she said.
‘‘For two weeks he was sometimes in intense screaming pain as the balls stuck his intestines together.’’
The family has since moved from Hawke’s Bay to Singapore.
Daymond-King said she found it difficult to understand retailers who were cutting prices to sell more magnets before they were banned.
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