Magnetic ball sets warning overview:
- Who: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned consumers to stop using five different varieties of magnetic balls due to ingestion hazards.
- Why: The magnetic balls do not comply with mandatory federal toy regulations because the magnets are too small and too strong.
- Where: The magnetic ball ingestion hazard warning applies across the United States.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned consumers to stop using five different varieties of magnetic balls that do not follow federal toy safety standards.
The magnetic balls are hazardous because the magnets are too strong and the toys are small enough to be ingested, the CPSC states.
“When high-powered magnets are swallowed, the ingested magnets can attract to each other or to another metal object and become lodged in the digestive system,” the CPSC says. “This can result in perforations, twisting and/or blockage of the intestines, infection, blood poisoning and death.”
The CPSC warns against these specific sets: Allvre’s 216-Piece 5mm Magnetic Ball Sets, Sunny House’s 125-Piece 5mm Mixed Color Magnetic Ball Sets, Ming Tai Trade’s 216-Piece 5mm Magnetic Ball Sets and Magic QQ’s 216-Piece Mixed Color Magnetic Ball Sets sold at temu.com and Carrara Magnetic Ball Sets sold on mykmarket.com.
The CPSC issued a notice of violation related to the magnetic ball ingestion hazard to all the companies but none agreed to recall or offer a remedy to consumers.
7 deaths, 2,400 ER visits due to magnet ingestion from 2017-2021, CPSC says
The CPSC estimates hospital emergency departments treated 2,400 magnet ingestions from 2017 through 2021 and is aware of seven deaths, including two outside of the United States.
The companies are not facing legal action over the warnings, but Top Class Actions follows product warnings and recalls closely as they sometimes lead to class action lawsuits.
Consumers can contact the CPSC to report incidents involving injury or product defect at saferproducts.gov.
In an email to Top Class Actions, Temu said the company is treating the issue “with the utmost seriousness and priority.
“Immediately upon receiving the notification from CPSC, we removed the products from our platform and notified the merchants to address the matter in accordance with CPSC’s requirements. Additionally, we followed the CPSC’s directive and provided them with the merchants’ information.
“We were not aware of the merchants’ responses to the CPSC and were shocked to learn about them. We immediately decided to ban the merchants from our platform permanently.
“For the recall that the merchants were unwilling to conduct, our platform will cover the costs. We will shortly issue a recall notice and have started refunding affected consumers. In matters affecting consumer safety, our platform will take full responsibility.
“We realize that our response in this instance was not adequate, and this course of action demonstrates our commitment to do better. We will learn from this experience and intervene in such situations more proactively.”
The company added that it has “significantly upgraded” its team since August.
In March 2022, two companies issued magnetic toy recalls. Boxine recalled around 4,200 of its tonies Blocks while HD Premier recalled about 119,620 of its DigitDots Magnetic Balls.
Are you affected by the magnetic ball sets warnings? Let us know in the comments.
Don’t Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
One thought on Consumer watchdog warns against magnetic ball sets due to ingestion hazards
My 17 year old son sollowed 4 of these balls and had to have surgery to remove them. Cost us over $10000. Please start a class action lawsuit against Walmart. I would sign up right away.