Six Retailers Announce Recall of Buckyballs and Buckycubes 343
thereitis writes "The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with six retailers, is announcing the voluntary recall of all Buckyballs and Buckycubes high-powered magnet sets due to ingestion hazard. CPSC continues to warn that these products contain defects in the design, warnings and instructions, which pose a substantial risk of injury and death to children and teenagers. An administrative complaint has been filed which is rare, as CPSC has filed only four administrative complaints in the past 11 years."
This follows last year's ban on buckyballs.
Re: death to children and teenagers. (Score:5, Interesting)
The situation that I heard about was teenagers (presumably at the lower end of that age range) accidentally ingesting them from putting them on their lips, tongue or teeth in trying to simulate piercings & jewelry.
It's still absolutely retarded that the CPSC is so bent on banning these things. I think the extent of their influence is getting them off retail store shelves, not outlawing their sale completely.
"At least" they've only gone after Buckyballs, not the other manufacturers. I bought mine from NeoCube [theneocube.com], as they're by far the cheapest for their large combo set. Buckyballs are expensive. As NeoCube and others (like Zen Magnets) generally only sell online, I'm not sure if they're in the CPSC's reach.
SC is working on a Law (Score:2, Interesting)
South Carolina has introduced state legislation that would make possession or sale of spherical magnets smaller than 1 inch in diameter a Class C Felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison, and limits the sale or possession of ALL magnets that are "just magnets" to industrial and commercial use only. For residential use, under the new legislation, all magnets must be part of an assembly that cannot be ingested, and the magnets cannot be removable from the product.
Idiocracy. For the children.