Rare Earth Magnets costs NZ teen part of his bowel

[DaveC426913]

"In 2013, after a series of hospitalizations due to magnets, New Zealand government officials permanently banned the sale of those made from neodymium-iron-boron (NIB)."
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-ze...his-bowel-after-swallowing-nearly-200-magnets

"A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand has had part of his bowel surgically removed after he ingested nearly 200 high-powered magnets. (2025)"

OK, this teen was a fool, but it is not always a teen, it is not always egregious misadventure, and it is not always without supervision:

"...they often come as brightly colored small balls, making them attractive for children to swallow."
"Even when parents are vigilant, mistakes can happen. In 2024, a young New Zealander swallowed two rare earth magnets at a birthday party."

".. one had passed into the intestine, and the other had stayed in her stomach. The magnetic pull had caused them to connect through the tissue and caused a tear in her stomach. This meant my daughter had to undergo emergency surgery."

 

[brooksadam]

That’s terrifying. Those magnet toys should never have been marketed for kids — they look harmless but can do so much internal damage. Even one can cause serious injury if swallowed. Glad the boy’s recovering, but honestly, these should stay banned.

 

[BillTre]

Even one can cause serious injury if swallowed.

I think it takes two to make intestinal trouble.They pinch through tissues.

 

[OmCheeto]

Instead of the warning
"Keep away from ALL children",
I think they should add;
"Seriously. If your child swallows a couple of these, and they don't die from intestinal perforations, it's going to cost you a small fortune to save their lives."
In a font that doesn't require a microscope.

I bought 648 of the cubical version right before the government kind of banned them way back when.
(google, google, google)
It looks like it was around 2012, according to this blipvert: https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/06/buckyballs-are-back/

 

[pinball1970]

A 13-year-old boy

"as they can be used to make different shapes and also be used as fidget toys. Unfortunately, they often come as brightly colored small balls, making them attractive for children to swallow."

To a three or four year old perhaps, he was 13!? Why on earth would a 13 year old swallow them?

 

[OmCheeto]

"as they can be used to make different shapes and also be used as fidget toys. Unfortunately, they often come as brightly colored small balls, making them attractive for children to swallow."

To a three or four year old perhaps, he was 13!? Why on earth would a 13 year old swallow them?

Ever hear of 'Tide Pods'?
Here is an excellent article I just found explaining why teens are so incredibly stupid:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-teenagers-eat-tide-pods-2018013013241

 

[DaveC426913]

"...they often come as brightly colored small balls, making them attractive for children to swallow."

To a three or four year old perhaps, he was 13!? Why on earth would a 13 year old swallow them?

Two answers, take your pick:

1. Quoting myelf:

...OK, this teen was a fool, but ...

2. Because he didn't know they could be harmful. More specially, he didn't kow how they could harm him. How would he know unless he was told? They're not toxic (else they wouldn't let children pay with them).

You can imagine a thirteen year old thinking wouldn't be funny to walk around with a couple of cans of soda pop, five dollars in change, and a bunch of paperclips stuck to his bare belly. His friends would laugh, and he'd poop them out in a week anyway.

 

[DaveC426913]

Ever hear of 'Tide Pods'?
Here is an excellent article I just found explaining why teens are so incredibly stupid:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-teenagers-eat-tide-pods-2018013013241

"They also have to take risks."

Agreed. Much as it gives us parents grey hair and shorter lives, it is the teenager's job to push leaky boundaries and take risks. They could never become adults if they didn't.

 

[OmCheeto]

"They also have to take risks."

Agreed. Much as it gives us parents grey hair and shorter lives, it is the teenager's job to push leaky boundaries and take risks. They could never become adults if they didn't.

For some as now unknown reason, I researched death rates of males vs females some time in 2018. It's amazing the disparity of the deaths rates of males vs females after the age of 10, whereupon the difference grows almost linearly to the age of 22, whereupon males are 2.8 x more likely to die than females.

Examples:​

at 10, boys are 1.1 x more likely to die than girls​

at 22, boys are 2.8 x more likely to die than girls​

reference: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

Period Life Table, 2014, as used in the 2017 Trustees Report​

 

[berkeman]

disparity of the deaths rates of males vs females

Is there an expanded report that lists the common causes of those deaths?

 

[OmCheeto]

Is there an expanded report that lists the common causes of those deaths?

Not to my knowledge.
I did compile a list of deaths by rank back in 2019, about 6 months before Covid struck.
source: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/death-index-top-50-ways-americans-die/
they listed the following CDC site as their source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf

I'm not seeing any gender and age charts that I would find educational.
Page 46 & 47 of the CDC pdf do list interesting gender statistics.

(google google google)

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr73/nvsr73-10.pdf

seems to be a good source: pages 22 thru 26

One interesting thing is how incredibly low the death rates are for this young demographic, compared to older people.

 

[berkeman]

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr73/nvsr73-10.pdf

seems to be a good source: pages 22 thru 26

I'm more of a visual person...

Differences by sex
Males and females shared 8 of the 10 leading causes of
death, with identical rankings for 4 of these causes. For both
populations, heart disease and cancer ranked as the first and
second leading causes of death, respectively (Figure 1, Table 1).
In 2022, heart disease accounted for 22.5% of all deaths to
males and 20.3% of all deaths to females. The percentage of
all deaths attributable to cancer was essentially the same for
males and females, 18.6% and 18.5%, respectively. COVID-19
was ranked fourth for both males and females and accounted for
6.0% and 5.4% of deaths, respectively. Another leading cause of
death with the same rankings for males and females was Chronic
lower respiratory diseases, ranked sixth; however, the burden of
deaths from this cause was higher for females than males (5.0%
of all deaths compared with 4.0%).

Differences by age
Differing patterns in the leading causes of death were
observed by age group, although all groups shared four of the
leading causes: heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, and
COVID-19 (Figure 2). Generally for younger age groups, external
causes (unintentional injuries, suicide, and homicide) accounted
for more deaths than other causes, whereas for older age groups,
chronic diseases were more prevalent. In 2022, the leading
cause of death for the population ages 1–44 was unintentional
injuries. The relative burden of mortality from this cause was
greater in this age range, accounting for 40.1% of deaths for
age group 10–24, 37.7% for age group 25–44, and 30.0% for
age group 1–9. In contrast, Unintentional injuries was the third
leading cause of death for age group 45–64 (10.9% of deaths)
and the seventh leading cause for age groups 65 and older
(3.0%) and 85 and older (2.9%). For the population ages 45–64,
the leading cause of death was cancer, accounting for 23.1% of
deaths. Cancer was the second leading cause for those age 65
and older (18.6% of deaths) and 85 and older (10.9%). Cancer
was the third leading cause for those ages 1–9 years (9.8%),
and the fourth leading cause for those ages 10–24 (4.8%) and
25–44 (8.0%). For the population age 65 and older, heart disease
was the leading cause, accounting for 23.4% of deaths. It was
also the leading cause for the population age 85 and older,
accounting for 26.7% of deaths. However, heart disease was the
sixth leading cause for age group 1–9 (2.6%), the fifth for age
group 10–24 (2.6%), the third for age group 25–44 (8.6%), and
the second for age group 45–64 (19.6%).
COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause for the total
population in 2022, but its rank varied by age.

It just seems like guys die at higher rates than women, and "hold my beer" deaths are not that different. Weird.

EDIT -- Oh wait, "Unintentional Injuries" is 4% higher in males, so maybe that is the "hold my beer" factor...

 

[Averagesupernova]

Why on earth would a 13 year old swallow them?

Maybe he thought he had "hardware".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_disease

 

[WWGD]

Hmm, I'm hungry. Let's see what's in the fridge: Steak, chicken, fruit, pancakes. No, let me have some rare earth toys.....

 

[WWGD]

I'm more of a visual person...

View attachment 366776


View attachment 366778
View attachment 366779


It just seems like guys die at higher rates than women, and "hold my beer" deaths are not that different. Weird.

EDIT -- Oh wait, "Unintentional Injuries" is 4% higher in males, so maybe that is the "hold my beer" factor...

Wonder how the ratio of men to women vary with age, maybe excluding periods with major wars. Will look it up tomorrow.

 

[sbrothy]

"as they can be used to make different shapes and also be used as fidget toys. Unfortunately, they often come as brightly colored small balls, making them attractive for children to swallow."

To a three or four year old perhaps, he was 13!? Why on earth would a 13 year old swallow them?

And perhaps between 50 and 100 one would wonder if he didn’t stop to think if what he was doing was a good idea, or indeed, tasted good enough to keep going?!

 

[sbrothy]

That’s terrifying. Those magnet toys should never have been marketed for kids — they look harmless but can do so much internal damage. Even one can cause serious injury if swallowed. Glad the boy’s recovering, but honestly, these should stay banned.

And with the girl’s complications from “eating” 2 one can only wonder about what “eating” 200 would do to your intestinal system?!

 

[pinball1970]

And perhaps between 50 and 100 one would wonder if he didn’t stop to think if what he was doing was a good idea, or indeed, tasted good enough to keep going?!

By 13 I had a basic understanding of the digestive system, basic. Enough to understand that plastic and metal would not be acted on by enzymes or be part of the natural process.
Also, and this needs to be said, probably by the time of 3 or 4 I think I had mastery my mum's command of Biology.

Without a higher education my genius mother.

Food she gives me is ok, also gran, uncle Ged and auntie Winnie.
Some stuff needs cooking first.
Some stuff I can eat just like that, it's awesome. Fruit and stuff.
Stuff around the house or found in the garden or Street will make my tum tum very poorly, do NOT put that in your mouth.
School dinners, ok.
Dirt/ mud very nasty and had germs, do not eat.
Do not drink water from a river, well, toilet (even though Sam our dog seems obsessed with it and makes you belly laugh doing it)
I know that Mrs Wilson's dog ate it's own feces in our garden but don't try that either. People don't do that.

"Do not eat bricks, metal plastic or wood" did not need to be hammered home by this point.

I was not the brightest 4 year old on this but I managed to side step a few land minds.

 

[sbrothy]

By 13 I had a basic understanding of the digestive system, basic. Enough to understand that plastic and metal would not be acted on by enzymes or be part of the natural process.
Also, and this needs to be said, probably by the time of 3 or 4 I think I had mastery my mum's command of Biology.

Without a higher education my genius mother.

Food she gives me is ok, also gran, uncle Ged and auntie Winnie.
Some stuff needs cooking first.
Some stuff I can eat just like that, it's awesome. Fruit and stuff.
Stuff around the house or found in the garden or Street will make my tum tum very poorly, do NOT put that in your mouth.
School dinners, ok.
Dirt/ mud very nasty and had germs, do not eat.
Do not drink water from a river, well, toilet (even though Sam our dog seems obsessed with it and makes you belly laugh doing it)
I know that Mrs Wilson's dog ate it's own feces in our garden but don't try that either. People don't do that.

"Do not eat bricks, metal plastic or wood" did not need to be hammered home by this point.

I was not the brightest 4 year old on this but I managed to side step a few land minds.

I guess you’re implying that someone did a very poor job of conveying these very basic concepts to the poor magnet “eating” rascal? Or that, as mentioned elsewhere, the SoMe peer presssure is simply ineffable to our generations (X in my case).

 

[sbrothy]

For some as now unknown reason, I researched death rates of males vs females some time in 2018. It's amazing the disparity of the deaths rates of males vs females after the age of 10, whereupon the difference grows almost linearly to the age of 22, whereupon males are 2.8 x more likely to die than females.

View attachment 366772

Examples:​

at 10, boys are 1.1 x more likely to die than girls​

at 22, boys are 2.8 x more likely to die than girls​

reference: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

Period Life Table, 2014, as used in the 2017 Trustees Report​

You do like your statiatics, huh?

This disparity has always been there as part of the males engaging in more risky behavior than females.

You’re not saying this trend is growing are you? Because that would be a scary graph!

 

[DaveC426913]

... a few land minds.

 

[pinball1970]

You got that?