More than two-thirds of children’s toys containing magnets are substandard, the Consumers’ Foundation and the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection said on Friday.
More than 60 percent of toys on the market with magnetic parts used neodymium magnets, which are also sold under the brand name Buckyballs, they said, citing a probe.
Foundation secretary-general Hsu Tse-yu (徐則鈺) said that 15 toys labeled as suitable for children under the age of three were tested, and many contained small magnets that children might ingest.
Photo: Lo Chi, Taipei Times
The magnets could puncture the child’s gastrointestinal tract, Hsu said.
Ho Wen-yu (何文佑), a member of the foundation’s medical committee, said that toy sets containing magnets that can be used as building blocks and formed into various objects are especially popular among children.
However, the magnets in these sets are especially easy to ingest or might be accidentally inserted into the ears or nostrils, he said.
When ingested, the balls might block parts of the gastrointestinal tract, and lead to reduced blood circulation and necrosis, he said.
Bureau deputy director-general Chen Ling-hui (陳玲慧) said that toys containing magnets have since Oct. 1, 2019, been regulated, and that those considered substandard in the probe might have been imported before that date.
However, it is easy to order such toys online, as vendors evade inspection by using different names and descriptions, he said.
Most of the inspected toys were made in China or were of unclear origin, said Yang Li-yuan (楊禮源), an official at the bureau.
The bureau has asked vendors to stop the sale of the substandard toys, it said.
If vendors fail to remove the items, they would be fined NT$60,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$2,103 to US$52,571), according to the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), the bureau said.
If the items have been added after Oct 1, 2019, the fines would be up to NT$2.5 million, it added.
The foundation called on parents to look for the bureau’s standards certificate for safe toys.
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