Magnet Ban: Too Stupid For Freedom!

[Percepi]

A few years ago, an amazing product hit the market. They were small spherical magnets that could be manipulated into different shapes. Numerous companies saw great potential in these strong, magnificent, little magnets and the market grew!

However, these magnets are quite dangerous when swallowed. Unfortunately, a handful of children and even a few teenagers have swallowed these magnets after putting them in their mouths. Surely, after reading the warning labels, the parents were held accountable, right? Unfortunately, the Consumer Product Safety Commission does NOT believe in accountability. If a child swallows a magnet, the CPSC views an all out ban on the magnets to be the only reasonable solution.

I am 23 years old and I don't eat magnets. Why is the CPSC PERSONALLY attacking my freedom to buy them? If you want to buy these magnets, they're personally attacking your freedoms as well! The CPSC argues "warning labels don't work", but that's precisely how we get away with selling cigarettes, guns, Legos, bleach, firecrackers, etc. Despite the fact that thousands of children are hospitalized from swallowing balloons every year. Balloons that are often handed out without warning labels, targeted towards children, and can be bought anywhere. Spherical magnets, on the other hand, come with warning labels, are targeted towards adults, and must bought by adults.

[video=youtube;wOv0AkphLhE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOv0AkphLhE[/video]

If you agree with the ban, please let us know how it's justified. If you don't agree with the ban, go to Save Magnets | The Resistance Against CPSC. Magnet Sphere Industry up to bat. and learn more about the issue.

Currently, there is only one U.S. company selling these magnets remaining. The CEO of the company vows to spend every last penny to fight off this ban even if it means going bankrupt. They care deeply about education and I hear their customer service is absolutely amazing. They are going to be fighting the CPSC this December, so this may be the last year Americans can purchase this product!

Zen Magnets
Neoballs.com| Professional sculpture magnet spheres at aggressive prices. (Daughter company)

Other companies such as Nanodots are still selling the magnets, but they aren't available to purchase in North America.

Here's a website that used to sell these magnetic spheres. It has been hacked by the U.S. Government:

The NeoCube

Q. Do I need to discard the NeoCube magnets set if there are no children under 14 in my household?
A. Yes. Even though no children under 14 currently live in your household, you should discard the NeoCube magnets set.

DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE.

These magnets are dangerous WHEN SWALLOWED. If you aren't going to swallow the magnets, why throw them away? The reason? Because "durrrrrrrr."

I am personally outraged because I have fallen in love with these wonderful magnets years ago when they first came out. And I would like to both spread awareness of America's anti-democratic process as well as offer magnet lovers out there a chance to buy this product before it's potentially too late!

 

[Nautilus]

I had like 200 of the individual spheres at one point. The people who lived in this house before us left them on the fridge where we use them as magnets and to be fair they are actually just fun to play with.

 

[blue_ladybug]

Percepi, Dude..seriously..they are just magnets..lol.. Isn't there alot more important things to worry about other than magnets? If magnets are at the top of your list of things to freak out about, then I question your priorities.. I'm much more concerned with IMPORTANT things, such as getting my prescriptions, and maintaining my journey towards God, so I give silly, trivial magnets no thought whatsoever..lol

 

[Percepi]

Percepi, Dude..seriously..they are just magnets..lol.. Isn't there alot more important things to worry about other than magnets? If magnets are at the top of your list of things to freak out about, then I question your priorities.. I'm much more concerned with IMPORTANT things, such as getting my prescriptions, and maintaining my journey towards God, so I give silly, trivial magnets no thought whatsoever..lol

This may seem like a trivial matter, but rarely do we lose our freedoms in vast chunks considered worth defending. Most of our freedoms are lost one at a time, little by little. It's when we fail to defend the hundreds of smaller freedoms we have before we realize we've lost them all!

Look at all the videos this YouTuber posted. He has probably spent hundreds of hours creating wonderful objects with these magnets. Consider other people in the future who might also spend so much time playing with these magnets, the government is robbing them of this enjoyment.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Mathnetism/videos

It may not seem like a big deal to you, but I've spent hours admiring other people's pictures and videos showing off their magnetic creations. In a way, it's like belonging to a small community that shares a common interest, and the government is taking it away. I have spent time playing with these magnets with my nieces and nephews, an experience in which they learned to be patient, to learn a little about shapes and counting, to learn about magnets, to learn to express themselves. This too will be robbed from us.

Sure, it's not as important an issue as healthcare, taxation, marriage rights, or guns, but it's still much larger than you might imagine. And it's most definitely large enough for me to fight for - no matter how small my contribution.

 

[Agricola]

Read up on the reason why, too many kids using them to simulate tongue piercings, a number of incidents where they have become detached and swallowed, which can cause life threatening situations if both are swallowed.

A ban is knee jerk reaction to stop this from happening, but certainly the number of cases is proberbly no different from injuries sustained by other activities where kids are doing stupid stuff.

 

[Percepi]

Read up on the reason why, too many kids using them to simulate tongue piercings, a number of incidents where they have become detached and swallowed, which can cause life threatening situations if both are swallowed.

A ban is knee jerk reaction to stop this from happening, but certainly the number of cases is proberbly no different from injuries sustained by other activities where kids are doing stupid stuff.

Exactly. I understand the dangers these magnets can pose when swallowed, but we can't cater to the stupid or irresponsible. What's really frustrating is that the CPSC won't even consider alternative ideas. Many manufacturers have coated the magnets in an agent that makes them taste horrible.

 

[Agricola]

Some cynics will say its natural selection in action and hand out a few Darwin Awards for fatalities.

 

[Desdichado]

Some cynics will say its natural selection in action and hand out a few Darwin Awards for fatalities.

I'm no Darwinist, but real responsibility is in such short supply these days.

 

[sassylady]

Unfortunately alot of things get banned because parents with small children aren't careful enough to make sure a child doesn't get hurt. I saw a case on tv where a child had intestinal problems and ended up with a colostomy because he had swallowed these magnets and his intestines got twisted up and cut off circulation. It's not the magnets it the parental supervision.

 

[Anonimous]

Is this like the idiots who sued Red Bull because they didn't really grow wings afterwards? Really, stupidity is NOT in short supply in this country...

 

[Anonimous]

I'm no Darwinist, but real responsibility is in such short supply these days.

In even shorter supply is something called "a brain".

 

[Percepi]

In even shorter supply is something called "a brain".

Keep in mind that the vast majority of people aren't swallowing these magnets or letting their children swallow these magnets. What's frustrating is when a small number of incidents is enough to destroy everyone's freedoms.

 

[posthuman]

i don't understand what you mean by "not available in North America" ???

5mm sphere magnetic magnet balls | eBay

is this thread the victim of some anti-government propaganda? you can certainly buy spherical magnets in any quantity. if there is a 'ban' there are some very wide gaping holes in the embargo. i bought about 500 magnets last month through ebay, mostly from China, but some from US sellers too -- no problem at all having them delivered.

something is fishy -- is it just a ban on marketing them as children's toys?

 

[Percepi]

i don't understand what you mean by "not available in North America" ???

All the American manufacturers have been shut down except for Zen Magnets. Most retailers have also been prohibited from selling these magnets as well. With the obvious exception of Zen Magnets, you can only buy imported magnets. The magnets you bought from within the U.S. must have come from obscure sources that are either reselling discontinued magnets or imported magnets.

something is fishy -- is it just a ban on marketing them as children's toys?

No. All the magnet companies stopped selling them as children's toys and were still shut down. The CPSC doesn't care who they're marketed towards, even if they're marketed towards adults only, they want these magnets banned.

Here are a few major companies that have been shut down:

Nanodots: Electroplated Nanodots by Nano Magnetics
(Not available to U.S. They are not available for purchase in the U.S.)

Neocube: The NeoCube
(No longer sold. Website has been replaced by an IRRATIONAL warning. I addressed the warning above.)

Magnicube: magnicubedotcom (website exists, but linking it breaks the post for some reason)
(No longer sold. Most of the links disabled. Homepage and existing links lead to recall information only.)

Buckyballs: MOH Liquidating Trust
(No longer sold. Their website has been shut down entirely.)
*** There is a BuckyBalls Store, but it's a China based company selling their remaining stock of BuckyBall brand magnets. BuckyBall brand magnets are no longer being produced.***

Cybercube: thecybercubedotcom
(No Longer Sold. There is no trace of the website left. It now takes you to some sort of domainname website - why I'm not linking it).

These magnets are not banned from being owned, but they are no longer produced in America and they can only be sold through obscure sources - most often foreign. I found numerous websites selling these magnets still, but they're all selling from China.

 

[JimJimmers]

I can still buy lead fishing weights, and they can be a real doozy when swallowed. Come to think of it, the fish hooks could be problematic also.

 

[crossnote]

Welcome to the United NANNY States.