Recent research provides a clear example of the dangers of deregulation. The study found that poison center cells involving children swallowing high-power magnets increased substantially after 2017 in the U.S., following the reversal of the ban on these products enacted years earlier.
High-power magnets (10 to 30 times more powerful than the typical version) come from rare earth metals and began to appear in children’s toys, as well as in products marketed for adults, such as toys. desk, in the early 2000s. Of course, any small object can be potentially dangerous for children, who tend to put things in their mouths and can swallow or drown them. But when they are more than one of these magnets swallowed (or a magnet and another piece of metal), the powerful pull between them can damage or cause obstructions in the intestine. In the worst cases, the victims have died or needed emergency surgery to remove parts of the bowel.
In 2012, the Consumer Product Safety Commission began cracking down on the sale of these magnets in toys through voluntary withdrawals. In 2014, a new federal rule essentially banned them from the market. In late 2016, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the rule and the magnets became widely available again in 2018.
This research, published in the Journal of Pediatrics in late January, it was studied how changes in policy might have affected the prevalence of these injuries. They analyzed national poison control data from 2008 to 2019, specifically examining 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 this time period. Compared to the period from 2008 to 2011, the average number of these annual calls from 2012 to 2017 decreased by 33%. But once the magnets came back, the calls skyrocketed. 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 have deserved serious medical attention, such as hospitalization, has also increased by 355%. In addition, 39% of all calls related to study magnets occurred in those two years alone.
Poison control calls do not take into account all serious injuries that occur in the United States, so the study’s findings are not necessarily representative of the danger of these magnets. 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 magnet-related visits to emergency rooms among children increased by 82% from 2017 to 2019, compared to 2013 to 2016. Another study in 2017 Found that at least 15,000 U.S. children went to the emergency room between 2010 and 2015 with magnet-related injuries, but cases began to dwindle after CSPC actions in 2012.
Although at least one company has done so recently committed to stop making products with high-power magnets after a long legal battle with the CSPC, researchers warn that far-reaching changes will be needed to really fix the problem. In the current study, for example, the rate of these poison control calls also increased for older children. Adolescents may not intentionally swallow these magnets as often as young children do, but they may still accidentally ingest them when they use them as false lips or piercings.
“These results reflect the growing need for preventive or legislative efforts,” the study authors wrote.