Buckyballs have been banned!

Evo

Yeah, use common sense. Keep small objects out of your house. IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!!! No one else.

OMG, MY CHILD SUFFOCATED ON A PING PONG BALL!!!!

Ok, that's YOUR fault, not the ping pong ball.

Jakeus314

Banning these is so incredibly wrong I can't explain my feelings. How? Just how can anyone think banning the sale will help ANYTHING... I feel bad for our country if this is evidence of future choices. The parents who let their kids swallow these things should be charged with a crime....

Danger

I never said that, nor did I imply it. What I said initially was that any 14-year-old who swallows magnets is an idiot; I then extrapolated it to other people who put foreign substances into their mouths and try to blame society for the outcome.


I guarantee that it's not even a tiny fraction of the number who have died of peanut allergies, and I don't see any blockades around Dairy Queen. I don't know about anyone else, but I sure never heard of those things being a hazard until less than 15 years ago.
I very much doubt that, and the kind of idiots who get cut are the same kind who eat magnets.
Really? How many people actually think about the hazard presented by golf tees? A kid who would swallow a magnet would probably stab himself with one of those. Or poke his eye out. (I saw someone get stabbed with one once, when he sat down without realizing that it was in his pants pocket. It was funny as hell to the rest of us, but he sure didn't think so.)
I know that my part of the world works very well by having people not eat inorganic objects.

Nano-Passion

Well yes, I agree. Which is why I responded that most other objects are not taken seriously until it becomes publicized on TV or by other sources of media.

Curious3141

On the same basis, the following are dangerous in that they pose a swallowing risk, bear no caution on the product itself (sans packaging) and should therefore be banned:

1) Tyre valve caps
2) Used or discarded staples
3) Ball bearings
4) Nails
5) Screws
6) Rivets
7) Button cells
8) Toothpicks
9) Cotton swabs (what you call "Q-tips" in the US)

and too many other household things to name. Heck, if we want to absolve the parents of ALL responsibility, we might as well include packets of dessicant (silica gel) with a "DO NOT EAT" warning clearly printed on the packaging, on the basis that the children likely to swallow those packets are unlikely to read and/or heed that warning.

We have to be reasonable about this. At some point, we have to draw the line and say that parents should step up and be responsible for the safety of their children. When I was a kid, my toys didn't come with screw-on battery compartments. Now, every single one of my own kid's toys come with this "feature", and frankly, it's a PITA, because my son has never been dense enough to attempt swallowing one of his batteries. In fact, it's a completely unnecessary imposition because my son manages his own battery collection, has his own battery tester, and has a screwdriver to change out used batteries himself. The fact of the matter is, I did a risk assessment, satisfied myself that he fully understood the risks, and was smart/mature enough not to do anything stupid, and I let him have the freedom to do these things which modern children are apparently not "supposed" to be doing.

Let's stop mollycoddling the children, let's reintroduce the notion of parental responsibility, and stop blaming the least likely party for mishaps. Only then will there be real hope for society.

(BTW, I agree with the bans on some obviously hazardous things like lead paint on chew toys for infants, because there is no way to escape the hazard even with full parental supervision. In these cases, using the toy as intended carries a serious hazard. What I'm against is taking this sort of caution to the extreme).

Evo

A sane parent!!! Bravo!!

DaveC426913

Zero of which are toys.

Being toys is one of the stipulations I mentioned.

Integral

Perhaps they should have banned it as a hazard rather then a defective product.

DaveC426913

That sane parent has to know something is a danger.

Should every parent race to the emerg every time their child swallows a nickel? No. The doctor would cuff them updside the head and send them home with a laxative. We have been taught that, common sensically some things are not a danger if swallowed.

These magnets are a (relatively) new health risk.

DaveC426913

Is that particular distinction in contention?

Hurkyl

A danger clearly indicated by its appearance as a long, thin, pointy object.

Danger

And again you are blatantly ignoring the fact that Buckyballs are not toys, were never intended as toys, and were never marketed as toys. A desk toy is by definition intended as a distraction for adults in an office environment.
Yeah, indicated to an adult. How many of golfers do you think lock them away or even warn their kids to leave them be? Probably none, because they assume that their kids are smart enough to not get hurt by them. That is as likely to fail as the assumption that the kid is too smart to eat magnets.

Ivan Seeking

Buckyballs have been banned? Male buckies must be really bummed!

Hurkyl

You're so wrapped up in your misanthropy you are completely missing the core issue here: the danger of the golf tee is indicated. The dangers of a golf tee are in line with the danger one would normally expect from its appearance as a pointy object.

Now, tell me, what danger is normally posed by a small, smooth, metal sphere? Include the hazards of swallowing such an object.

Now compare that against the danger posed by a Buckyball.


I don't really have an opinion on the topic, but it is frustrating seeing so many strong opinions that completely ignore one of the most important aspects of the situation.



As an aside, magnets as a severe swallowing hazard isn't a particularly new thing, is it? Is this one of those things that crops up every now and then before people forget about it until the next time it happens?

Nano-Passion

It hasn't. Some organization asked the company to stop producing buckeyballs, but that won't happen without a fight of course.

Curious3141

It's not a toy marketed to kids. As Danger has mentioned, it's a desk toy for adults and you can't find it in Toys R Us.

None of those things I mentioned are toys for kids either.

Curious3141

Thank you, Evo. It irritates me when people don't take responsibility for their own parenting decisions.