They look like harmless toys — colorful little balls or cubes that snap together into satisfying shapes. But the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warns that high-powered magnets are one of the most dangerous products in American homes, responsible for the deaths of children and thousands of emergency room injuries every year. CPSC estimates 2,400 magnet ingestions were treated in hospital emergency departments from 2017 through 2021 alone. CPSC is aware of at least seven deaths since 2005 involving the ingestion of hazardous magnets, including the death of a 19-month-old girl.
Why Are They So Dangerous?
High-powered magnets are up to eight times stronger than the magnets found in ordinary refrigerator toys. When two or more are swallowed, they attract each other internally — pulling through intestinal walls and body tissue. The result is a catastrophic internal injury: perforations, twisting or blockage of the intestines, blood poisoning, and death. What makes these injuries especially dangerous is that they are frequently not recognized immediately. X-rays may show multiple swallowed magnets as a single object, and the symptoms — abdominal pain, vomiting — can be mistaken for a common illness. Delayed treatment significantly increases the risk of death.
These hazards affect children across all age groups:
- Toddlers may find and swallow loose magnets from the floor or from sets left accessible by older children.
- Tweens and teens have been known to use small magnets to simulate mouth, lip, or nose piercings, accidentally swallowing them in the process.
Who Is at Risk
CPSC’s mandatory federal safety standard for magnets, approved in 2022, requires that loose or separable magnets in consumer products either be too large to swallow or too weak to cause internal injuries if swallowed. However, non-compliant magnet products — including magnetic ball sets, magnetic fidget products, and magnetic jewelry — continue to be sold online, often by sellers who have not agreed to recall them despite CPSC notices of violation.
What You Should Do
- Immediately remove from your home any high-powered magnet sets, magnetic ball or cube sets, magnetic jewelry-making kits, or faux magnetic piercings.
- Keep all small magnets permanently out of sight and reach of all children, including teens.
- If you suspect a child has swallowed one or more magnets, seek emergency medical attention immediately — do not wait for symptoms. Tell the treating physician that magnets may have been ingested.
- Note that in X-rays, multiple magnetic pieces may appear as a single object.
- Check SaferProducts.gov to determine whether any magnet product in your home has been recalled.
To report a dangerous magnet product or a product-related injury, visit SaferProducts.gov or call CPSC’s Hotline at 800-638-2772.
Source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Safety-Education/Safety-Education-Centers/Magnets
