Recent research provides a clear example of the dangers of deregulation. The study found that poisonous central cells involving children swallowing high-powered magnets increased substantially after 2017 in the US, following the reversal of the ban on these products adopted years ago.
High-strength magnets (10 to 30 times stronger than the typical version) come from rare earth metals and have begun to appear in children’s toys, as well as in products sold for adults, such as office toys, at early 2000s. Of course, any small object can be potentially dangerous for children, who tend to put things in their mouths and could swallow or suffocate them. But when there are more of these magnets swallowed (or a magnet and another piece of metal), pulling hard between them can damage or cause obstructions in the intestine. In the worst cases, the victims died or needed emergency surgery to remove parts of the bowel.
In 2012, the Consumer Product Safety Commission began combating the sale of these magnets in toys through voluntary recalls. Until 2014, a new federal rule essentially banned them from the market. At the end of 2016, however, the US Court of Appeal rejected the rule, and the magnets were again widely available until 2018.
This research, published in the Journal of Pediatrics in late January, it looked at how policy changes could have affected the prevalence of these lesions. They analyzed national poison control data from 2008 to 2019, specifically analyzing calls involving children under the age of 19 who swallowed magnets.
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In total, there were just over 5,700 magnet-related calls during that period. Compared to the period 2008-2011, the average number of these calls per year from 2012 to 2017 decreased by 33%. But once the magnets returned, the calls increased. In 2018 and 2019, the average number of calls per year increased by 444% compared to the period when magnets were banned. The number of calls that deserved serious medical care, such as hospitalization, also increased by 355%. Moreover, 39% of all magnet-related calls in the study took place in these two years alone.
Calls for poison control do not take into account every serious injury that occurs in the United States, so the study’s findings are not necessarily representative of how dangerous these magnets are. But other recent research has shown a similar pattern using reliable injury data. A study published in December 2020, for example, it found that the rate of magnetic emergency visits among children increased by 82% between 2017-2019 compared to 2013-2016. Another study in 2017 found that at least 15,000 children in the US went to the emergency room between 2010 and 2015 with magnet-related injuries, but cases began to decline as a result of CSPC actions in 2012.
While at least one company has recently pledged in order to stop producing high-powered magnets after a long legal battle with CSPC, researchers warn that far-reaching changes will be needed to truly solve the problem. In the current study, for example, the rate of these poisoning calls has also increased for older children. Adolescents may not intentionally swallow these magnets as often as young children, but they can still accidentally ingest them when they use them as tongue piercings or false lips.
“These results reflect the increased need for preventive or legislative efforts,” the study authors wrote.