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While the dangers of children accidentally ingest batteries and laundry detergent pods are well known, doctors are sounding the alarm on the risks associated with another common household item: tiny and powerful magnets. Federal security officials tried to ban them several years ago, but they are now back in the market and are raising concerns about more injuries.
Stephanie Harwell fell victim to this fear when her 9-year-old son, Dominic, accidentally swallowed two powerful magnets.
His friends took them to school as a toy. "I was messing around and I put them in my mouth to give the impression that I had a lip piercing," he told CBS News. "Then they stuck very fast and put me in the throat."
He told the school nurse who then phoned his mother.
Harwell, a registered nurse from the pediatric emergency department at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, was worried and made some phone calls herself.
"I knew the risks of swallowing batteries, but I did not remember if I had heard any warnings about magnets," she said. "I was told that a magnet was not so bad, but if he had swallowed two, I should get him in right away."
Two magnets could tighten and pinch the internal organs, which could cause serious problems.
In the end, Dominic was lucky. After a few tests that determined that he was not in imminent danger, he passed both magnets without complications.
Johns Hopkins Medical Center
The dangers of ingesting magnets
For other families, the results were worse. Although the ingestion of a set of magnets can prove dangerous, security experts are particularly concerned about powerful magnets made from rare earths.
These magnets began to be manufactured in the 1980s, but they began to appear in children's toys and, more generally, as adult office toys designed to avoid boredom, in the early 2000s They are sold under names such as Buckyballs, Zen Magnets and Neoballs and are 5 to 10 times more powerful than traditional refrigerator magnets.
Concerns about these magnets were highlighted by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in 2012.
The agency cited the case of a A 3 year old girl in Oregon who swallowed 37 Buckyballs. At first, her parents thought that she was suffering from intestinal flu, but an X-ray revealed a circular chain of magnets in her stomach. In the end, the magnetic balls tightened the girl's intestines, pierced her three holes in the lower bowel and a hole in her stomach.
In another case, a 6-year-old girl swallowed 19 magnets, causing ulcers in her stomach and leaving two small holes in her intestine.
CPSC also attributes the death of a 19-month-old girl to very powerful magnets. The estimated number of victims is around 2,900. wounds treated in emergency room related to magnets between 2009 and 2013.
The real danger occurs when more than one of these magnets is swallowed, or a magnet and any other piece of metal.
"They can go through the esophagus in the stomach and GI [gastrointestinal] Amyna Husain, pediatric emergency physician at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "If you have two magnets in different parts of the fabric and they are attracting, the tissue between the two can get stuck and you lose blood flow."
This can cause a tear in the intestines that can cause bacteria to enter the abdomen and cause serious infections. In the most severe cases, it may be necessary to surgically remove parts of the intestine.
The CPSC banned sets of high-powered magnets in 2014, but two years later, it was overturned by a court.
"We are worried about seeing more of these cases now that they are back on the market," Husain said.
Tips for parents
"As pediatricians, we always want to prevent young children from getting in. If you know that one of these magnets is in the house, be sure to keep them out of reach, or even to the home they do not need it, Husain says.
She advises parents to know what magnets might be in their children's toys. "If they break, magnets can be swallowed by children, so be aware of this risk," she said. "For those who are not encapsulated in toys, keep them out of reach or even in the house if you do not need them."
She also recommends talking about risk to pre-teens and teens. "Of all the risks we want to talk about with our children, it's so simple to make them aware that it could cause serious injury and keep them not just out of the mouth, but from any other open They are accidentally ingested, they must take it seriously and immediately inform someone so that it can be urgently taken for immediate evaluation. "
Harwell says she hopes other parents will realize the risk posed by these magnets. His son Dominic also hopes to get the message across.
"When I came back to school, I told my friends not to bring them back to school or put them in your mouth," he said.
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