United States: Following seven ingesting deaths caused by the loose, dangerous magnets in Chinese supplier Doraemon’s magnetic ball sets, the US consumer protection organization issued a warning on Thursday to stop using the products right once.
The federal toy regulatory criteria were not met by one or more of the magnets in the Doraemon Dovfun Suit Magnetic Ball Sets, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), according to the reports by news agency Reuters.
The toys, which came in sets within a transportable tin storage box with a clear plastic casing, were offered for sale online at Amazon.com (AMZN.O) for roughly US$25.
An estimated 2,400 magnet ingestions were handled in hospital emergency rooms between 2017 and 2021, according to the CPSC. Seven deaths have also come to its attention, two of which occurred outside of the US.
“When high-powered magnets are swallowed, the ingested magnets can attract to each other, or to another metal object, and become lodged in the digestive system,” the CPSC said in a statement.
The regulatory body stated that although Doraemon received a notice of violation, the vendor has not consented to a recall of these magnetic ball sets or to provide customers with a remedy, according to the report by Reuters.