CPSC wants to ban Buckyballs because kids keep eating them

LeapingGnome wrote:

What crap.

Come on, now. It's gov't keeping us safe! It's not like the resources that were spent shutting down dangerous things like Buckyballs and Lance Armstrong had any better places to go!

Maybe I shouldn't have been giving out individual samples to trick-or-treat'ers.

Who wants more government regulation?

I think this has been a vast underground conspiracy by Juggalos to ban them because they don't understand how they work.

IMAGE(http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/002/395/magnets_c.jpg)

CannibalCrowley wrote:

Who wants more government regulation?

Huh. Didn't think I'd be able to use this so soon. Thanks, Mixolyde!

Well crap. I guess I'm glad my wife got me a three pack last Christmas.

Well crap. I guess I'm glad my wife got me a three pack last Christmas.

I remember, only vaguely[because I was so young], going out to the garage, getting hammer out of Dad's tool chest, and smashing individual pieces of gravel; just for fun. It made smoke and sparks. I'm lucky I have eyeballs.

I can see how it would be difficult to prevent an infant from coming into contact with them once they were in your house. We're probably the worst helicopter parents. I can remember counting the marbles from Hungry Hungry Hippos upon taking it out, and putting it away, so my eldest son could play with it while his younger brother was out, or sleeping.

I still might not have seen the danger in these. They seem pretty innocuous.
BTW what is the side effect? Perforated bowel? Do you have to eat it then brush up against the fridge, or a carpet transition strip?

The problem isn't when you eat one. It's when you eat two.

Verily, Buckyballs are the Lay's-esque "bet you can't eat one" child's toy of intestinal doom.

LobsterMobster wrote:
CannibalCrowley wrote:

Who wants more government regulation?

Huh. Didn't think I'd be able to use this so soon. Thanks, Mixolyde!

Sorry lobster, I guess i should have added "of products which could possibly harm children" just for you. Come on, this if the same agency which stated that kids' dirt bikes shouldn't be exempted from the anti-lead law.

Funny enough, Yellek says that have a bunch of these in her office, so I asked for a set. She brought home 2 last week, but said that was all she could get, as they have to ration them now, because they've been discontinued.

Bought a couple more sets. This is the highest level of idiocy. If parents are concerned that these are dangerous, don't have them in the home. Hell, we still have button-batteries, and those things are swallowed all the time and are horrific in their effect if they rupture. I'm so tired of everything being decided from a fear-based perspective. Getting upset about these little infringement on liberties seems silly to a lot of folks (especially the "for the children") folks, but yielding passively on the little liberties ingrains habits that make it so much easier to not object when greater liberties are infringed.

I agree that this ban is silly and an unnecessary encroachment - but all of you without kids saying "be better parents" shows how little you know about raising children and how they put everything in their mouths. If this saves one kids life, I am basically ok with it.

duckideva wrote:

And yet nobody ever thinks of banning kids...

I've thought of it. Problem is that it's completely legal to have as many kids as you want and raise them as poorly as you want.

Also, if Buckyballs are outlawed only outlaws will have Buckyballs.

When I was probably around 12 or 13, I decided I wanted to do electroplating for a science fair. So I went to a local electroplating shop to ask them what I needed to do.

They sent me home with instructions, and a good-size bag of powdered potassium cyanide.

Seriously. A bag. Of potassium cyanide. They were very, very clear with me that I needed to wear gloves when working with it, that even a little bit on my skin would kill me. But they sent me home with it, and I successfully managed to electroplate a bunch of stuff with the solution and instructions, and did a science fair presentation. And I didn't kill myself or anyone else.

Can you even imagine a kid in 2012 being given something like that?

(And, for what it's worth, I really understood that that bag was lethal, and I was incredibly careful with it. I was sloppy about a lot of stuff when I was a kid, but in that case, I had an absolute, laser focus on being safe. The electroplating company probably would have thought it was funny, how careful I was... I put out a garbage bag under my measurement station, and measured the cyanide while it was still in the bag, and transferred it so slowly and cautiously to the solution. I used either goggles or a face mask, not sure which anymore, to protect myself from splashes, and wore long sleeves that I tucked into my rubber gloves. I must have looked hilarious, but as far as I know, I didn't spill even a grain of the stuff. )

second or third edit: In thinking about it some more -- I'm sure I told my dad that the bag was poisonous, but I wonder if he ever realized it was potassium cyanide?

SallyNasty wrote:

I agree that this ban is silly and an unnecessary encroachment - but all of you without kids saying "be better parents" shows how little you know about raising children and how they put everything in their mouths. If this saves one kids life, I am basically ok with it.

I haven't got kids of my own, but I did help raise a cousin who put practically everything she could get in her mouth or up her nose (putting stuff in your mouth I can understand - it might be tasty - but why the nose?). But even with the toys they could have banned to protect her (and the toys we DID ban from the house for her safety), it didn't stop her choking on a Skittle, or a button from her own sweater, or eating the little sliver of soap on the bathroom counter, or trying to wash her hair with toothpaste, or glugging down a quarter bottle of olive oil and barfing all over her bed.

Short of keeping her tethered in a bubble, there was not much we could do. I know it only takes a second for them to eat something and maybe choke to death on it (and I have no idea how common that is) but even so, banning toys seems pointless. Putting out even more warnings, or refusing to sell them without a waiver (like some hot sauces you can buy) - I could see those being more reasonable measures than flat out banning something that most people enjoy safely.

Buckyballs still freely available here in the UK; where we have nationalised health care so kids accidentally swallowing things isn't a massive financial burden that everyone has to freak out about

LobsterMobster wrote:

The problem isn't when you eat one. It's when you eat two.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Verily, Buckyballs are the Lay's-esque "bet you can't eat one" child's toy of intestinal doom.

You guys are killing me.

SallyNasty wrote:

I agree that this ban is silly and an unnecessary encroachment - but all of you without kids saying "be better parents" shows how little you know about raising children and how they put everything in their mouths. If this saves one kids life, I am basically ok with it.

So DON'T HAVE THEM IN YOUR HOUSE. It is not hard. Did you know not a single kid has been killed by Buckyballs? Kids have actually been killed by all kinds of other things, such as guns, tall buildings, lawn mowers, falling televisions, baseball bats, football, golf clubs, cleaning solutions, blankets, plastic bags, hammers, airsoft guns, boxflexes, I could go on.

None of them are banned and children have actually died. Some of them are even marketed as children toys. Explain why Buckyballs are special? Explain why parents can seem to keep kids from drinking their Windex but not from eating their Buckyballs? It is a ridiculous overreaction that wastes money, puts a company out of business and people out of jobs and is pointless.

SallyNasty wrote:

I agree that this ban is silly and an unnecessary encroachment - but all of you without kids saying "be better parents" shows how little you know about raising children and how they put everything in their mouths. If this saves one kids life, I am basically ok with it.

Uh, your first statement and last don't quite agree. And as a parent I have to say that the "be better parents" bit does apply. I would never consider bringing a small yet powerful magnet into my house if I had a child young enough to still be putting unknown objects in her mouth.

As for the bit about being worth it, I'll skip the Ben Franklin bit and go straight to saying that nobody has died. As for the statistics: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eliyah...

IMAGE(images.huffingtonpost.com/2012-08-01-BuckyballInjuryChartRevisedRevised.png)

Yeah, Kannon Jr tried putting stuff into his mouth a fair bit. I'd still not want to ban them. Seriously, it's completely ridiculous.

I've done the childproofing thing before. You will *always* miss something. Buckyballs, as a desk toy, are really not terribly likely to be that thing.

You could keep them away from the kids. You all seem to manage that with the kitchen knives? Have you successfully kept your kids largely stab free thus far?

SallyNasty wrote:

If this saves one kids life, I am basically ok with it.

It won't.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Buckyballs have not resulted in a single death as far as I can tell. Surgeries, yes. Deaths, no. On the other hand, you get around a dozen choking deaths just from small toys each year (children's toys!). And "drowning is responsible for more deaths among children 1-4 than any other cause except congenital anomalies (birth defects)" along with "among children ages 1 to 4, most drownings occur in home swimming pools." (Source: CDC) And still around 200 children 4 and under die from accidental poisoning each year. (source)

Quintin_Stone wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

If this saves one kids life, I am basically ok with it.

It won't.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Buckyballs have not resulted in a single death as far as I can tell. Surgeries, yes. Deaths, no. On the other hand, you get around a dozen choking deaths just from small toys each year (children's toys!). And "drowning is responsible for more deaths among children 1-4 than any other cause except congenital anomalies (birth defects)" along with "among children ages 1 to 4, most drownings occur in home swimming pools." (Source: CDC) And still around 200 children 4 and under die from accidental poisoning each year. (source)

Yes, but you would support buckyballs BECAUSE they killed children.

You monster.

So now what happens to all the Buckyball knock-offs? They're essentially the same thing, just with weaker magnets and/or cheaper paint.