US safety commission tries to stop sales of Buckyballs
JUL 26, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.026199
Washington Post : Because children have been swallowing the tiny magnetic toys marketed as Buckyballs , the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) filed a complaint yesterday to get stores to stop selling them. Since 2009 at least a dozen children have swallowed the high-powered magnets. If two or more of the tiny balls are ingested, they can attract each other across intestinal walls and cause serious injury or death. Buckyballs’ manufacturer, Maxfield and Oberton, has refused to recall the product and calls the CPSC’s actions “unfair, unjust, and un-American.” So far, the CPSC has succeeded in getting about 10 retailers, including Amazon.com, to drop the product.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
