Magnet ingestions surge after federal rules eased What’s happening

The number of children ingesting rare-earth magnets — powerful tiny balls that are a popular desk toy and can shred a child’s intestines — has skyrocketed in the three years since courts blocked the efforts of federal regulators to force changes to the in

The nation’s poison control centers are on track to record six times more magnet ingestions — totaling nearly 1,600 cases — this year than in 2016, when a federal court first sided with industry to lift the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s four-year ban on the product. Medical researchers say the only explanation for the spike is the return of these unusually strong magnets to the market after the court ruling.

Now, with the CPSC largely sidelined, magnet industry officials have launched a new effort to prevent product injuries and deaths through voluntary safety standards. Used for thousands of consumer products, these voluntary standards are supposed to reflect a balance between business and safety interests.

But the priorities of safety groups and regulators have been drowned out by the desires of manufacturers, who often decide which safety options are considered and hold an advantage in voting on which rules will take effect, according to a Washington Post review that included listening to hours of public meetings and obtaining emails about the process, along with interviews and documents.

Why it matters

Problems with voluntary safety standards extend beyond magnets, critics say, to other children’s products, including infant inclined sleepers. In many cases, the CPSC can’t act until the voluntary standards have proved inadequate.

“It makes our jobs harder to have to defer by law to an extremely inefficient and industry-focused process,” said Elliot Kaye, a CPSC commissioner and former agency chairman. The voluntary standards process, he said, “has cost lives.”

In the magnets case, which played out over recent weeks, manufacturers drew clear limits on how far they were willing to go for safety. They would consider only standards that “don’t change the utility, functionality and desirability of the product for adults,” Craig Zucker, who runs a magnet company, said in an email to others on the committee deciding the proposed safety rules.

But safety advocates said that the committee should look at anything that might avoid accidents. Otherwise, Don Huber,

director of product safety for Consumer Reports, said in an email to the committee, “I am struggling to see how it will be anything beyond a marginal improvement.”

What’s next

In early December, the voting members of the magnets committee received a ballot containing a proposed voluntary standard for magnets sets. The votes are due in early January.

The proposed new standard would require safety warning labels and packaging changes, including a way to visually check that all loose magnets are inside. The proposal leaves the magnets themselves untouched.

CONTRIBUTED BY JULIE BROWN An X-ray of a 2-year-old boy shows 16 magnets in his intestines. Critics say magnet companies’ calls for voluntary safety standards won’t protect children.