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[Wag the dog parenting] - Or, why Buckyballs are not a snack food.

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Posts

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Feral wrote: »
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Although the question remains: Are they actually more dangerous to have around than legos?

    Yeah. If two are swallowed, they can line up in the folds of the intestine and stick together, causing damage to the intestinal wall.

    Except that we have higher documented instances of medical emergencies with legos than buckeyballs.

    What is this I don't even.
  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Feral wrote: »
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Although the question remains: Are they actually more dangerous to have around than legos?

    Yeah. If two are swallowed, they can line up in the folds of the intestine and stick together, causing damage to the intestinal wall.

    Except that we have higher documented instances of medical emergencies with legos than buckeyballs.

    I would hazard that this is because one is a popular children's toy that has been manufactured and sold on a large scale for decades, and the other is a niche curiosity aimed at adults.

  • DelphinidaesDelphinidaes FFXIV: Delphi Kisaragi Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Not to muddie the waters, but I have an anecdote!

    One weekend while working a long stretch at the office, a coworker brought his son in with him as he popped by to provide some support to the project we were working. We had a few "office toys" about that I busted out to keep the little guy occupied while we worked on spreadsheets. I was, at the time, unfamiliar with Buckyballs to any great extent, and was completely unaware that they were widely viewed as a swallowing hazard. So I happily handed a pile of them off one of the exec desks to an 8 year old! It was certainly not self evident that they posed a greater risk as a choking hazard than your average legos, etc., since there was no packaging with warning labels for them.

    Although the question remains: Are they actually more dangerous to have around than legos?

    And that would be a great example of an outlying exception to the norm. In all of the reported cases the product has been introduced to the child by the parent. Either it was given to a child for their own use, left out in reach of a child, or stuck to a fridge in reach of a child. Most of the incidents have been from kids imitating facial piercings and accidentally swallowing them.

    I would say that while both legos and buckyballs pose a significant risk to the digestive system, buckyballs probably poses a higher potential risk due to the nature of magnets. Both can cause blockage, necrosis, perforation, etc. However the danger in buckyballs only really comes about when more than one is ingested. Also there is a much lower incident rate with buckyballs than with legos I would imagine due ot how widespread legos are and how they are actually marketed to children.

    Granted children aren't trying to pierce their faces with legos, but I figure if your child is old enough to have the cognitive capabilities to imitate a lip or nose piercing using magnets, they are old enough to be educated on the dangers of ingesting magnets and the potential repercussions.

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  • VeeveeVeevee WisconsinRegistered User regular
    A Lego block is dangerous because it can get stuck in the throat and case the child to suffocate, but once in the digestive system it has no problem moving through it. Buckyballs however are round spheres that are incredibly easy to swallow and pose zero suffication risks, and swallowing a single Buckyball is not a problem as it will also easily pass through the digestive tract. The only risks associated with Buckyballs is due to it's magnetic properties and how if it is attracted to a piece of metal, or another swallowed Buckyball, it can case either a blockage or perforate the intestine.

  • DelphinidaesDelphinidaes FFXIV: Delphi Kisaragi Registered User regular
    Veevee wrote: »
    A Lego block is dangerous because it can get stuck in the throat and case the child to suffocate, but once in the digestive system it has no problem moving through it. Buckyballs however are round spheres that are incredibly easy to swallow and pose zero suffication risks, and swallowing a single Buckyball is not a problem as it will also easily pass through the digestive tract. The only risks associated with Buckyballs is due to it's magnetic properties and how if it is attracted to a piece of metal, or another swallowed Buckyball, it can case either a blockage or perforate the intestine.

    If you eat 37 legos there is a good chance it will block your intestines (referencing the case of the kid eating 37 buckyballs in a pretty bracelet formation). I agree one lego may be pretty benign, but as you pointed out the same is the case for buckyballs. It's when you start eating 4, 5, 7, 10 of them that issues crop up, and that would hold true for legos as well.

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  • KetherialKetherial Registered User regular
    edited August 2012
    Ketherial wrote: »
    i know you guys are all in the middle of your little circle jerk, but honestly, not wanting this toy like object to be sold to children is not really an unreasonable request. people are comparing them to cigarettes, alcohol, knives and swimming pools. i think that says something.

    does someone get arrested if they sell buckyballs to a 12 year old? im betting not. does someone get arrested for selling any of those other things to children? yes.

    banning is dumb. i think we can all agree on that. but let's not pretend these things are something they aren't. again, you guys are the ones comparing them to knives and poisons and swimming pools. these things are dangerous.

    While you can't sell cigarettes and alcohol to minors, I'm pretty sure that the set of things you can't legally sell to a minor in the US is limited to: cigarettes, alcohol, porn, and guns. And I'm not actually sure about guns. Kids can buy knives all day long, and if they somehow had the cash for it, they could buy themselves a swimming pool, too. Considering that you can buy cigarettes, alcohol, knives, and swimming pools from your local WalMart, I'd say that purchasing any one of those items is actually easier than buying a box of Buckyballs Murder Death Orbs. You have to go to the internet, weird specialty shops at the mall, or (rarely) a bookstore to buy those. And god knows kids don't go to bookstores.


    knives: http://pweb.netcom.com/~brlevine/sta-law.htm#S-W
    you can't really sell knives to kids, although some states may be really funky. i haven't checked them all.

    as for swimming pools, most of the time you have to sign a contract for installation and labor and materials, and since minors can't sign contracts...

    i mean, i know what you are trying to say here, but people, and specifically retailers, will be held responsible for selling dangerous items to minors. right now consumers are trying to hold buckyballs the company responsible and i sort of understand why. but no one is trying to hold a retailer responsible. and that's because no one knows or knew how dangerous these magnets are.

    i think there is a pretty clear problem here. and i think that regardless of how informed you may think people are or should be about buckyballs, they probably arent. yet i can guarantee you that they are well informed about the dangers guns, knives, poisons and pools pose to children.

    so again, saying we should ban buckyballs is not at all like saying we should ban swimming pools. it's pretty different. still total overkill and unnecessary, but we shouldn't pretend they are the same thing.

    Ketherial on
  • VeeveeVeevee WisconsinRegistered User regular
    edited August 2012
    Veevee wrote: »
    A Lego block is dangerous because it can get stuck in the throat and case the child to suffocate, but once in the digestive system it has no problem moving through it. Buckyballs however are round spheres that are incredibly easy to swallow and pose zero suffication risks, and swallowing a single Buckyball is not a problem as it will also easily pass through the digestive tract. The only risks associated with Buckyballs is due to it's magnetic properties and how if it is attracted to a piece of metal, or another swallowed Buckyball, it can case either a blockage or perforate the intestine.

    If you eat 37 legos there is a good chance it will block your intestines (referencing the case of the kid eating 37 buckyballs in a pretty bracelet formation). I agree one lego may be pretty benign, but as you pointed out the same is the case for buckyballs. It's when you start eating 4, 5, 7, 10 of them that issues crop up, and that would hold true for legos as well.

    Even at 37 swallowed blocks the Lego bricks would flow through the digestive system without a problem, unless they somehow got connected in the digestive tract which isn't very likely

    Veevee on
  • DivideByZeroDivideByZero Social Justice Blackguard Registered User regular
    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
  • CambiataCambiata Commander Shepard The likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered User regular
    "If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
  • _J__J_ Pedant Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
  • DelphinidaesDelphinidaes FFXIV: Delphi Kisaragi Registered User regular
    Veevee wrote: »
    Veevee wrote: »
    A Lego block is dangerous because it can get stuck in the throat and case the child to suffocate, but once in the digestive system it has no problem moving through it. Buckyballs however are round spheres that are incredibly easy to swallow and pose zero suffication risks, and swallowing a single Buckyball is not a problem as it will also easily pass through the digestive tract. The only risks associated with Buckyballs is due to it's magnetic properties and how if it is attracted to a piece of metal, or another swallowed Buckyball, it can case either a blockage or perforate the intestine.

    If you eat 37 legos there is a good chance it will block your intestines (referencing the case of the kid eating 37 buckyballs in a pretty bracelet formation). I agree one lego may be pretty benign, but as you pointed out the same is the case for buckyballs. It's when you start eating 4, 5, 7, 10 of them that issues crop up, and that would hold true for legos as well.

    Even at 37 swallowed blocks the Lego bricks would flow through the digestive system without a problem, unless they somehow got connected in the digestive tract which isn't very likely

    "Could" you mean. They wouldn't even have to get connected. According to this article if a single lego piece (or any foreign object) is longer than 6cm or wider than 2cm there is a much higher chance of obstruction at the pyloric sphincter. The incident rate would also increase with sharp or pointed objects, of which legos also apply.

    The article also goes on to list some statistics on child foreign body ingestion (More than 125,000 reported cases in 2007 ages 19 and below with the greatest number of incidents between the ages of 6months and 4 years) in addition to clinical signs, possible complications, and even a little note on magnets.

    I agree that the chance is relatively low but so is the incident rate of buckyballs. (I think "increased" would have been a better choice of words than "good" in my above post) I'm saying here is an example of a product that is marketed specifically towards children, is given to children, and has a chance to cause intestinal problems if ingested. However there is no call to ban them because the notion is absurd. Now we compare to a product not marketed to children, one that you have to be above a certain age to buy, and specifically says to keep away from children, has a low rate of incident and is now ban worthy.

    Not to mention (as others already have) that the ban is not on ALL small rare earth magnets, only the ones from one company which seems to me if they really were concerned about the hazard these things pose they would ban them all instead of just the most popular ones.

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  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    Don't forget that the only real danger neodymium magnets pose is when you eat them an hour or so apart. So this is a repetitive process, that's happening over a longer period of time. This is just bad parenting, not a bad product.

    Honestly, the quicker we get those genes out of the gene pool, the better.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    I normally don't like to necropost, but I thought this would be interesting to those involved in the thread, who expressed that they wanted to buy some:

    Save 60% with the coupon code "saveonballs"
    https://www.getbuckyballs.com/

    offer ends on September 14th.

    Get free shipping if you purchase 2 sets.

    I am not affiliated with them, I just wanted to share.

    banner_160x60_01.gif
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    That's pretty depressing.

    What is this I don't even.
  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    Looks like they're discontinuing the Buckyballs and Buckycubes, not shutting down. That said, the Bucky Bigs don't look appealing as a desk toy.

    Hopefully the "the next generation of Bucky" is a better alternative and the loss of sales from the balls/cubes don't cause huge problems for the company.

    Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
  • tbloxhamtbloxham Registered User regular
    Barrakketh wrote: »
    Looks like they're discontinuing the Buckyballs and Buckycubes, not shutting down. That said, the Bucky Bigs don't look appealing as a desk toy.

    Hopefully the "the next generation of Bucky" is a better alternative and the loss of sales from the balls/cubes don't cause huge problems for the company.

    Balls/Cubes are probably 99.9999% of their business.

    "That is cool" - Abraham Lincoln
  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    There's a new CNN article about this, as well as an awesomely belligerent notice on the getbuckyballs.com site.

    http://www.getbuckyballs.com/
    Goodbye Buckyballs & Buckycubes.

    Due to baseless and relentless legal badgering by a
    certain four letter government agency, it's time to bid a
    fond farewell to the world's most popular adult desktoys,
    Buckyballs and Buckycubes. That's right: we're sad to
    say that Balls & Cubes have a one-way ticket to the
    Land-of-Awesome-Stuff-You-Should-Have-Bought-When-You-Had-the-Chance.

    There are still a few thousand sets of Buckyballs,
    Buckycubes, and Chromatics in stock and available
    for purchase online.

    But act fast; once they're gone, they're gone for good.

    And while we get ready for the next generation of Bucky, there's still unlimited fun to be had with Bucky Bigs
    and Buckybars.


    http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/02/tech/web/apparently-this-matters-buckyballs/index.html
    There's a man defecating on my desk. He's Spanish. But, sadly, it's not Rafa Nadal. For surely that might count, then, as an oddly spectacular life moment worth Instagramming.

    Thanks, Rafa! #Deuce

    No, the squatting Spanish defecator I speak of is actually a three-inch-tall plastic figurine known as a Caganer. I bought it a while back in Barcelona, and, believe it or not, he's a traditional fixture in Catalan nativity scenes, which, apparently, are inspired by parking lots at Philadelphia Eagles games.

    So, I keep my little Caganer near my computer because it makes me smile. But I also just like having interesting desk toys, even though it seems I've clearly been missing out on the single greatest one of all.

    You see, this week the interwebs suddenly started buzzing about a very specific desk toy called Buckyballs. I had never actually heard of these things, but online chatter went a little crazy right after the company announced they were discontinuing production of their hugely popular and addictive shape-changing magnetic beads.

    If you're not quite sure what I'm talking about, just think stress ball meets marbles meets Silly Putty...

    ...meets possible agonizing pain.

    Amazingly, while everyone from WIRED to MAXIM to The New York Times has boasted about these tiny little magnetic balls of joy, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has basically deemed them to be just slightly less dangerous than trying to administer a hernia test to an unwilling gorilla.

    In fact, this past July, in their official lawsuit against the makers of Buckyballs, the commission noted that the magnets "contain a defect in the design, packaging, warnings and instructions which pose a substantial risk of injury to the public."

    It turns out kids like shiny things. And sometimes they swallow shiny things. But when those shiny things happen to be superpowerful magnets, it's actually a fairly serious health concern.

    Many retailers voluntarily stopped selling Buckyballs at the safety commission's request, but the distributor, Maxfield & Oberton Holdings, continued to manufacture and sell the product.

    Until Wednesday.

    That's when Buckyballs put out this statement:

    "Due to baseless and relentless legal badgering by a certain four letter government agency, it's time to bid a fond farewell to the world's most popular adult desk toys, Buckyballs and Buckycubes. That's right: We're sad to say that Balls & Cubes have a one-way ticket to the Land-of-Awesome-Stuff-You-Should-Have-Bought-When-You-Had-the-Chance."

    Buckyball supporters were furious. Now I feel their pain. Because these things are amazing!

    While writing this, I decided to step away from my work and scour the newsroom to see if anyone actually had Buckyballs. I wanted to test them out, but -- truth be told -- I also can't concentrate for more than 30 seconds at a time. So, I figured I might as well walk around and distract my co-workers.

    The logical first stop was Topher's desk, because his cubicle always seems to have a certain level of "flair." Unfortunately, since Buckyballs have nothing to do with "Star Wars" he didn't have any -- lest they disrupt the delicate feng shui of his Darth Vader shrine.

    "You have failed me for the last time, Topher."

    Fortunately, his desk neighbor, Michelle, DID have Buckyballs! However, she wasn't in the office yet, so I couldn't just politely borrow them for an hour.

    Thus, I politely stole them.

    Walking around the newsroom with this small mass of tiny round magnets was like coming to work with a puppy. Everyone wanted to hold it, and I watched seemingly mature adults delightfully morph into whimsical children, completely in awe of this strange, invisible force. For as the great American poets, Insane Clown Posse, once asked, "(Expletive) magnets -- how do they work?"

    Cute as it may have been to watch my colleagues smiling like little kids, the irony is that it's real children who have brought Buckyballs to their end. Despite the fact that, since 2010, there have been warning labels in five places on each box, and additional inserts specifically instructing adults to keep these far, far away from kids (you know, like poison or guns or that one creepy neighbor who always brags about once being on "Dateline"), Buckyballs are still being swallowed.

    So, the debate rages online: Was it right for the government to go after Buckyballs, or has the company properly done its due diligence to warn and protect consumers?

    It's sort of a moot point since, at least for now, what they have in stock is all that's left.

    Though, I suppose you could always just politely steal them from Michelle's desk.

  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    So just for reference, people can still leave their kids unattended by pools or drive them without putting them in a carseat but we've stopped the theoretically lethal menace of buckyballs

    thank god

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    How dare we expect parents to be responsible for their children. Time to ban kitchenware because some parents don't like to make sure their kids don't get ahold of any of it.

  • AgahnimAgahnim Registered User regular
    Just bought three packs. Sad to see them go.

    2.jpg
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  • NocrenNocren Lt Futz, Back in Action North CarolinaRegistered User regular
    Wonder if retailers were/are forced to recall them back to the manufacturer or just put them on clearance and get rid of them?

    newSig.jpg
  • 143999143999 Tellin' ya not askin' ya, not pleadin' with yaRegistered User regular
    Damnit, and all those coupon codes they used to leave working perpetually have been rendered invalid now, too. My fault for waiting, I guess.

    8aVThp6.png
  • DelphinidaesDelphinidaes FFXIV: Delphi Kisaragi Registered User regular
    I bought a pack from their site when I heard they were going to stop selling. Still ridiculous that they had to stop, such a sad state that we can't even count on people to properly read or use common sense.

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  • Man in the MistsMan in the Mists Registered User regular
    This seems relevant.

    Once again, The Onion foresees the future.

  • DurkhanusDurkhanus Commander Registered User regular
    I just ordered some cubes, balls, and bars.

    I'd always seen these things in local stores, but never bought any. Glad I caught this.

  • MortiousMortious The Nightmare Begins Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    Now earlier in the thread, it was said that Buckyballs is just one brand, and that the lawsuit doesn't include these type of magnet toys being sold by other companies.

    Does that mean that only this particular distributor has to stop selling their brand?

    Move to New Zealand
    It’s not a very important country most of the time
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
  • Casually HardcoreCasually Hardcore Once an Asshole. Trying to be better. Registered User regular
    I think it's just 1 company choosing to stop selling this product.

  • BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    Yeah, the product isn't banned, they just decided to stop selling them rather than keep fighting the lawsuit.

  • Casually HardcoreCasually Hardcore Once an Asshole. Trying to be better. Registered User regular
    You can still find these things everywhere (like here for example:

    http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale/wholesale-neodymium-magnets-sphere.html)

    But, who knows how good they're. Buckyballs is just a good brand cause you know you're getting a pretty good product.

  • FeralFeral MEMETICHARIZARD interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    You can still find these things everywhere (like here for example:

    http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale/wholesale-neodymium-magnets-sphere.html)

    But, who knows how good they're. Buckyballs is just a good brand cause you know you're getting a pretty good product.

    Honestly, Buckyballs weren't even that particularly good.

    They just had effective marketing.

    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
  • FeralFeral MEMETICHARIZARD interior crocodile alligator ⇔ ǝɹʇɐǝɥʇ ǝᴉʌoɯ ʇǝloɹʌǝɥɔ ɐ ǝʌᴉɹp ᴉRegistered User regular
    Personally, I like Zen Magnets: http://www.zenmagnets.com/

    But they're a bit expensive

    every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.

    the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    edited November 2012
    Feral wrote: »
    Personally, I like Zen Magnets: http://www.zenmagnets.com/

    But they're a bit expensive
    That company linked to a petition aimed at the same four-letter government agency that caused problems with Buckyballs, and it also states that Zen Magnets received the same request to "immediately stop manufacturing, importing, distributing and selling all [magnet spheres]." That is backed up by NYTimes, and that petition was posted by the "Curator" of Zen Magnets.

    The CPSC has begun the rulemaking progress to ban these types of magnets, you can read that here. Comments can be left here, the docket number is CPSC-2012-0050.

    Barrakketh on
    Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
  • MortiousMortious The Nightmare Begins Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    edited November 2012
    Oh, okay then. At least they're consistent.

    Mortious on
    Move to New Zealand
    It’s not a very important country most of the time
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
  • DonnictonDonnicton Registered User regular
    Mortious wrote: »
    Oh, okay then. At least they're consistent.

    Stupidity tends to be pretty consistent.

  • 143999143999 Tellin' ya not askin' ya, not pleadin' with yaRegistered User regular
    You can still find these things everywhere (like here for example:

    http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale/wholesale-neodymium-magnets-sphere.html)

    But, who knows how good they're. Buckyballs is just a good brand cause you know you're getting a pretty good product.

    Don't suppose anyone can vouch for any of the sources linked there?

    8aVThp6.png
  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    I've bought Zen Magnets and played with Buckyballs. There was absolutely no difference between the two products that I was able to notice, except that I believe the Zen Magnets are slightly smaller.

    When I saw they were going to stop selling buckyballs I went to buy a couple packs. Then I remembered how insanely expensive they are and stopped.

    What is this I don't even.
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    This is pretty fucking ridiculous.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    This may be a bit of a rehash, but is the CPSC the same organization that banned KinderEggs from the US?

    banner_160x60_01.gif
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    edited November 2012
    I mean, that's understandable at least. Toys inside of an edible product. Not little magnets meant as toys for adults and people over 12, which were swallowed by an unsupervised child. And resulted in no deaths.

    bowen on
    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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