Taipei Times
Date: Mar 16, 2019
By: Chen Yi-chia and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer
“Buckyballs” — magnetic balls sold as toys — are to be subject to mandatory inspections
Highly magnetic “Buckyballs” are displayed at a news conference by the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee in Taipei on Sep. 5, 2012.Photo: Yang Chiu-ying, Taipei Times
starting on Oct. 1, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said, after the introduction of warning labels in 2012 failed to prevent cases of children swallowing the magnets.
Often marketed as educational toys, Buckyballs are said to stimulate creativity and improve logical reasoning, the Consumer Protection Committee said.
However, the potential risks should not be underestimated, it said.
Buckyballs have a magnetic strength of more than 4,000 gauss, or 80 times the international standard, and as they are small, children could accidentally swallow them, it said. [FULL STORY]
