Surgeons remove up to 100 magnets - which have been banned in the country but bought online on Temu - from New Zealand teen’s gut
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45088835
A 13-year-old boy in New Zealand swallowed up to 100 high-power magnets he bought on Temu, forcing surgeons to remove tissue from his intestines, doctors said on Oct 24.
After suffering four days of abdominal pain, the unnamed teen was taken to Tauranga Hospital on the North Island.
“He disclosed ingesting approximately 80 to 100 5x2mm high-power (neodymium) magnets about one week prior,” said a report by hospital doctors in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
The magnets, which have been banned in New Zealand since January 2013, were bought on online shopping platform Temu, they said.
An X-ray showed the magnets had clumped together in four straight lines inside the child’s intestines.
“These appeared to be in separate parts of bowel adhered together due to magnetic forces,” they said.
[...]
Surgeons operated to remove the dead tissue and retrieve the magnets, and the child was able to return home after an eight-day spell in hospital.
“This case highlights not only the dangers of magnet ingestion but also the dangers of the online marketplace for our paediatric population,” said the authors of the paper, Dr Binura Lekamalage, Dr Lucinda Duncan-Were and Dr Nicola Davis.
Surgery for ingestion of magnets can lead to complications later in life such as bowel obstruction, abdominal hernia and chronic pain, they said.
[...]
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/surgeons-remove-up-to-100-magnets-from-new-zealand-teens-gutOpen linkView original on lemmy.sdf.org
This is fucking stupid. A 13 year old is old enough to read the "don't fucking eat this you dumbass" labels on the packaging. Do you know how useful neodymium magnets are? You're gonna just ban them cuz this kid's dumb enough to swallow a hundred fucking rare earth magnets and didn't go to the doctor for half a week? Stupid
Next they're going to ban CR2032 button cells
(I was gonna put a /s at the end but I can vividly imagine that happening now :/ )
Not sure if you're aware, but Duracell and probably others coat button batteries in a chemical that tastes bad in order to discourage ingestion.
I see where these regulations are coming from, but we can't just ban away anything that could be harmful. I just recently bought a bunch of magnets like these for a using in 3D printed models. I don't have any kids, but I do have pets and so they're stored away in their own case and not left around. People just need to be responsible. I mean, we don't ban bleach but you sure as hell shouldn't drink it!
I was at a company picknic this summer and was watching people trying to play a pitiful version of Lawn Darts. The darts were weighted but would just bounce off the ground and ruin a good shot. Lawn darts, or darts of any kind, simply don't work as a game when you take the pointy end away. I will say though, that a company outing where there's people milling about is not a good place to play lawn darts, so I wouldn't have used the real ones here even if you could.
Proper product packaging, like we use in medicine canisters, and perhaps an extra disclaimer/waiver on purchase is the way to go on these things IMO.
Denatonoum Benzoate.
Intensely bitter compound used to prevent people from putting them into their mouths. Examples include nail polishes (to help nail biting habits), button cell batteries, and even Nintendo switch cartridges.
Denatonium - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium
Also if you’re having trouble with a low power devices with button cells. Wiping them down with isopropyl alcohol to clean off the bitter coating can help. Both my car keyfob and an AirTag both started working again after cleaning the brand new batteries.
I agree that most of these safety bans are stupid. Lawn darts though? I don't see a reason for the old version. Sure, without a dart it may bounce, but that becomes part of the game. It's like some saying horseshoes is ruined because they bounce sometimes. Or curling is ruined because the stone slides too far. It's just more skill that's needed to account for the fact it could bounce.
Lawn darts was a dangerous game to begin with, so I'm not too shaken up about losing it, but I disagree that the bouncing is part of the game. No ground is perfectly even, and you can't see imperfections from where you throw. It just creates randomness and makes it not worth playing. These aren't issues in the other examples you cited. My opinion, obviously.
You could say the same about puting in golf. Reading the ground is a huge part of it. It's something good players do and bad players don't.
I don't think you can compare a park/field to a manicured putting green. You can't see the ground through the grass. Either way, play it if you like, to each their own.
In Australia CR2032s have a double wall thick plastic blister packaging that is basically impossible to open.
You need scissors AND some time.
This is an example of a sensible control. Double walled, difficult to open packages may be a small inconvenience for adults, but it makes it near impossible for a toddler to open. Button cell batteries are seriously dangerous if swallowed.
Banning neodymium magnets is fucking stupid, and unfortunately the world seems to be heading in the direction of banning everything in the name of "safety".
Same in the US, apparently. I bought some to replace my car key remote battery. Guess what I don't have in my car? Any kind of scissors.
Not to harp on you but one of those old school keychain Swiss Army knives should be on your key ring
Not looking for a stiff fine or gaol time. Yes, a Swiss Army Knife on your keyring is considered a dangerous weapon here too.
(Legally, there is an exception for Utility knives, if you 'have a good reason' but it's never given, people have been fined for having box cutters)
Usually I carry a little Leatherman folding knife, but I didn't grab it that morning because I was just stepping out to replace a battery. I didn't expect it to be a whole ordeal.
Don't forget the ink
Yeah stop banning everything that can hurt you because ONE person does something stupid. Like we say in my language, one time is zero times. Everything can hurt you. If many people start doing it, maybe it's time to consider a ban.
They're banned since 2014 because apparently multiple people had the idea to eat them for whatever reason
What the shit aotearoa
Better ban the ocean then. I heard millions of people decide to go swimming in it every day and some of them drown.
For example, a big contention of 16 year olds being able to drink was one teenager going to a bar and drinking 43 shots of tequila and killing himself.
That should be a case of the bartender being guilty of manslaughter or something. "Accessory to the death of another" or summit? I dunno. Nobody should be served 43 shots, let alone children.
I know the ban was before the event, you get what I meant.
I had to double take at neodymium — wtf!!!! Neodymium is completely standard for audio drivers, where the choice of the magnet is actually very important! My good old Philips 2XHR literally proudly advertise on the shell that they have a 50mm neodymium dynamic driver inside them... banning them is ridiculous
Magnets from Temu were probably just loose in a bag or some bubble wrap with no warning label. People should know they're not food anyway, but defying a warning label wasn't the particular flavour of dumbness exhibited here.
I am so confused. Why did he eat them? Magnets are banned in New Zealand since 2013? Are they marketed as special eating magnets?
Small high-powered magnets, specifically
So basically banned for this exact reason.
It's fine if you only eat one, though. Just make sure it's out before eating another one. 🤷♂️
This is exactly what I do and it's never bothered me.
Sniffing magnets get you fucked up.
They're pretty small and kids like to stick things up their noses.
You don’t snort a line of magnets before hitting the club? What a square.
The real question that remains unanswered: why the fuck did that boy try to earn a Darwin Award? One or two would be an accident, 100 is done on purpose
I get an unsupervised toddler eating something they shouldn't have been able to get to in the first place...
A 13 years old should at least have a functional brain.
I would like to remind you of Tide pods, planking, and ghost riding the wip.
Planking was just lying down on things, so hardly an instance of teenagers endangering themselves.
The tide pod thing wasn't exactly what it seemed to be. Some children with learning disabilities and some people with dementia had died from mistaking laundry pods for food. At some point, some media outlets decided to sensationalise it by leaving out the bit about learning disabilities. That meant that there were teenagers who thought other teenagers had died from eating them, so they could make videos pretending they'd done that, just like teenagers have staged videos to make it look like they're doing dangerous things that they aren't really doing ever since people have let them have cameras. Some of them decided that the easiest way to pretend was to put a real laundry pod in their mouth, pretend to chew it and swallow, pretend to die, and then cut the video and spit it out. If they checked the relevant warnings on the packet, they just said not to eat them and to rinse their eyes if they got any there, so this plan might seem safe. However, laundry pods are so corrosive against mucous membranes that putting one in your mouth and spitting it out immediately because it starts to burn immediately can still be fatal or cause permanent injury. The media reported the deaths and injuries as if teenagers were intentionally eating laundry pods, rather than pretending in a way the packet implied might be safe, so most people weren't learning that pretending was also deadly and that the warnings on the packet weren't exhaustive, so it just made fake tide pod challenge videos even more tempting. If the reporting had been more responsible, then most people would have first heard even pretending to eat laundry pods can kill rather than teenagers are eating laundry pods.
I only knew snippets of this as well even years later so I appreciate the rundown. Thanks for typing it up!
That's a good point and I appreciate the details. The only one that I can really remember is exactly that. A kid who popped in his mouth and it burst on accident.
Not fair to through planking in there.
I think they are referring to people who did it in incredibly stupid places. There were planking fatalities, falls from cliffs and balconies. Darwin award winners.
I must've been checked out by then, cause I only saw people doing it in real life. And it was usually pretty safe spots around the university I was at att.
Yeah, I think the vast majority weren't in that dumb of places, though I bet there were a ton of smaller injuries that didn't make the news, because the whole point of the trend was to do it in shocking or obnoxious places (at least for the ones trying to go viral). But I'd guess the majority of people who did it weren't trying to go viral but just trying to fit in and applied some common sense to it.
Yeah. Exactly that. I'm thinking of the ones who were falling off the balconies. I know that they were very small minority, but I felt it was still an example.
Not all of them do, especially mentally unwell children or ones with developmental disorders
Nearest I can imagine is that he wanted to have a magnetic spot on his stomach for party tricks/TikToks.
MagSafe bellybutton.
Not gonna lie, banning 5x2mm magnets is insane. They're very useful, I've seen countless DIY projects or 3D print models that use them and in general they're just handy. It seems insane to me to ban them for such a reason. There are infinite ways in which children can hurt themselves, should we ban stoves because they can get hot? That ban sounds a bit too much to me.
The ban was specifically in the context of toys.
We banned toy magnets. Magnets for other purposes are still completely legal.
Ah, ok, thar is some much needed context
Exactly. I never heard of a magnet ban in my life.
But how do they work?
"You can't explain that." ~ Bill O'Reilly
Magnetic field comes in and field comes out. You can't explain that
Something like magnets are outstanding in their field.
Bucky Balls were banned in the USA for 4 or 5 years.
Even I know not to eat magnets ffs.
And you're a dumbass
Exactly!
Damn, ain’t seen your name for a while.
That's unusual for a teenager to do, I'm curious why he did that. My first guess would be a developmental delay vs a dare?
Teens eat Tide pods on what's essentially a dare.
Only 86 teens ate Tide Pods, so why did the world erupt in moral panic?
Because our children being fucking dumb enough that 86 of them ate LAUNDRY DETERGENT is an issue.
I think the bigger problem is that adults focus on issues that are marketed to us than the issues that actually exist
Direct focus to a moral panic, no need to look at the real issues that could hit the bottom line.
Their grandparents used to chew on lead paint chips so lets not pretend this is new
Lead is sweet which makes this an unfair comparison
So is antifreeze and I don't remember the drink antifreeze challenge so idk about that. Not to mention the reason people chose tide pods was because of the sensory feeling they gave dissolving in your mouth, so it's a lot more similar than you make it out to be. Just a case of taste vs texture.
There have been multiple instances a while back of people in northern Canadian "dry" communities being poisoned from drinking antifreeze and pop/soda.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/spotlight-on-antifreeze-deaths-concerns-local-residents/article25473170/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/3rd-tuktoyaktuk-resident-medevaced-with-suspected-antifreeze-poisoning-1.3265783
"only"!?
Most of those occured after mainstream reporting. Usually it goes like this, some weird trend happens online, some real, some ironic, some making fun of said trend as if they were real, mainstream media picks up the story and signal boosts to the rest of the country, teens see the trend on clips of the news story and copies it, boom sudden epidemic of said trend. These trends, or memes suddenly propogate with great effect, not unlike a biological spread really.
Pica?
How else does one become magneto?
Teens are dumb.
That's true. But they don't normally eat 100 magnets.
Just laundry tabs. Lol
adults these days are also fucking stupid and incompetent
god I fucking love generalisations
All generalisations are great.
🥇
The brain is not fully developed till your 30’s.
I wouldn't even go that far, given some of the adults I've met.
teenagers are fucking stupid. never forget that.
when i was a teenager, my friend and I got into a BB gun fight without any eye protection, i nearly lost an eye.
Do you still see eye to eye with them today?
Yea I feel like Temu is not at fault here, but rather, a lack of parents and a lack of brain
How do we know this wasnt a stupid TikTok trend like the forbidden fruit/tidepod thing?
Maybe ban or actively filter that shit first?
Another massive brain skill issue, lack of education, and no parents
It wasn't illegal to eat dirt and worms when I was a kid, but my parents told me not to, so I didn't.
You don't need the governments controlling children through laws. Parents have that role. And education. End of story.
That's on dumb parents sticking a tablet or a phone in their kids face before they can even learn to walk, so they don't have to engage with them or put any effort towards raising them, such people should stop reproducing and the world will be a better place for it
Reading helps.
As an older Queer, i gotta tell you "They are bad because it's illegal" is not a good argument
But if it's illegal that must mean it's bad?
Ok now that we established that I have to go mindlessly coagulate in front of my 60th re-run of NCIS.
It's bad that they shipped them to a place where they're illegal.
And? If you need to ban magnets country wide, the issue is probably the country's education system, not the magnets or the seller of the magnets.
You know what else helps? Having a brain, and parents that aren't incompetent.
Yeah, having a brain is generally helpful. Just think before you type.
Low quality ragebait
No it's still parents and brain related.
Why are kids eating magnets now?
Six seven, obviously.
60-70* We have now changed the meme.
It increases the vibe
I am almost afraid to ask... but why eat magnets?
How else is he going to get out all the metal shards he ate?! It's like if a bird gets stuck in the wall and you use a cat to get the bird out!
What are you smoking and can I have some, please?
I think the kid might've been avoiding hardware disease
They do that by feeding cows magnets.
(no but seriously 100 small magnets on purpose is something else)
Of course, you just gotta wrestle the bag from the racoon!
Well I did! But I didnt wrestle the raccoon, I helped him get some more from a greedy cigar smoking capitalist aardvark, then we danced to this all night.
Of course when I woke up there was just a bunch of dead raccoons around me and I was wearing a shirt that said 'nyuk nyuk nyuk' with the three stooges... something tells me I might have already been high the whole time!
I'm sorry. I can't hear you over the 80s oozing from this song!
Pica?
It could be a desperate suicide attempt. The magnets get trapped in the bowels by sticking together at various points, necrotizing or rupturing the intestines or other tissues, which can cause peritonitis or ultimately sepsis, which can be fatal.
That is such a slow and painful and unsure way to commit suicide though...
Agreed. A few of my physician/nursing friends mentioned that they see these kinds of injuries on rare occasions and have always been attributed to patients in serious mental/emotional distress, so this level of desperation is unfortunately still out there.
I have very little sympathy for any 13 year old dumb enough to eat magnets. I have zero sympathy for any 13 year old that ate a hundred of them.
It didn’t say in the article but would you have empathy if he was special needs. Because I am also at a loss for how a non special needs child could eat hundreds of magnets
I kinda get it. These things come as a cylinder. He didn't so much swallow 100 individual magnets, but rather swallowed a complete cylinder package of them. The x-ray tends to confirm that.
Still, if you're 13 years old, you're old enough to understand why you shouldn't swallow everything in front of you.
Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids
Was scratching my head wondering what got him into swallowing so many of those magnets for no other logical reason in the first place, except maybe because of some online Tiktok dare where logic is thrown out of the window.
Free bus rides. Just stick to the side.
Bullshit propaganda to try to soften age restrictions coming in to fkin everything.
Magnets are banned in New Zealand?
Banning teenagers was considered less practical.
It did have a higher popular support tho.
The post States that the subject of the band are the small magnets.
Reading comprehension is going to be the end of us.
There's a lot of worse things that could be the end of us...zombie kittens, for example
I think the post actually stated 'banned', not band.
And actually it's auto correct that will be the end of us.
now they'll never know how they work.
Some like Bucky Balls are banned in the USA as well.
And they laugh at the USA because Kinder eggs with toys in them are banned.
They're laughing at USA for other reasons, mate.
Well sure, but we're also laughing about the kinder egg thing.
Where they banned in all their various applications? Because I had a scare when my 2-year-old granddaughter found a box with a magnetic latch and the magnet had been torn out. We thought she ate it. But after scouring the area we found it, and it's a thin neodymium magnet. Went through the whole house making sure boxes like that were out of her reach.
One magnet is harmless. The problem is when you eat more than one, and they pinch their way through the intestine.
Or a magnet and some other ferrous metal. That might be more likely than multiple magnets sometimes.
I still have a set of BuckyBalls that I bought before the ban. They're kind of a cool toy to fidget with, but I understand why they're banned.
Shouldn't they just ban 13 year olds?
As tempting as that sounds, they are dangerous. They're BB-sized and strong, so they can puncture intestines if ingested by pets, toddlers, or even a 13-year old lacking the common sense of a pet or a toddler.
What the hell is wrong with NZ? Are they trying to out nanny-state the UK?
Fucking christ NZ can't even have magnets?!
That sounds like something the british would do.
Well hearing Trump rant against magnets might happen to the US soon as well
Given the level of unchecked malice we're facing at the hands of said government, I expect more edible magnets to suddenly become available.
I'm sure that's next on his list lmao.
How is Temu allowed to sell items which are explicutly banned in that country?
Customs cannot possibly scan every package coming in.
Parcel gets marked as childs toy.
Honestly pretty good chance it gets through.
By shifting the responsibility to the seller. temu is just a marketplace, the sellers are people who run the factories or their fulfillment center.
https://www.productsafety.govt.nz/for-consumers/using-products-safely/small-high-powered-magnets
NZ banned toys from having magnets like this, but not complete magnets sold for general purposes. The article is misleading.
Which is also more reasonable than banning it across the board.
I don't know if this is the same loophole used in NZ as in the UK and EU, but in the UK and EU, lots of things are banned from retail rather than completely illegal. If they're imported and the importer sells them without demonstrating that they're safe, the importer has committed a crime. If the importer keeps them for personal use, that's fine, though. In theory, people ordering things from outside the EU and importing them are supposed to be aware that they're importing things and that the stores aren't necessarily only selling CE-marked goods, so they're responsible for checking that they're safe themselves, but in practice, people just see an online shop and don't make a distinction from a domestic online shop except the price and delivery time. The EU is working on a law to close this loophole in some way.
I like to think as the surgeons were removing the magnets they asked themselves “Magnets, how do they work?”
They should have just dunked him in water. Problem solved. /s
Wet magnets are the most useless thing ever.
I have ... hmm ... questions ... but I guess a ban was in order ... I mean given the ... circumstances ... but why!?
I wonder why they banned them. Were a lot of children eating then? What do you do if you need a small powerful magnet?
So, New Zealanders can’t magnetize their Warhammer minis? What do they do if there are rule changes that affect their unit loadout? This is a human rights abuse!
I think the post actually stated 'banned', not band.
And actually it's auto correct that will be the end of us.
I'm sorry, but it's a teenager. He's at the point where it's his body, his choice. I say let him die or digest them. Natural selection trying it's best and being thwarted for extreame cases is bad.
The degree ignorance and abomination of some of the comments here in this thread is another reason to not use Temu or a similar platform.
Not trying to defend temu, they are definitely careless enough to breach way bigger restrictions than this. However, don't just ignore the rest of the context here.
It's unreasonable of you to only direct blame to Temu (which are know to be negligent and aggressive at testing the limits of what they can get away with) in this particular, unusual case.
Looks like they were 100% right to ban them.
No, it looks like a 13 year old did something fucking stupid.
So now makers and hobbiest's just can't have magnets? Surely that's an overreaction.
The banned magnets have to meet all these criteria:
Are small enough to fit into the small parts cylinder, which is a device used for testing in Australian and international toy standards. Have a magnetic flux index greater than 50 (kG)2 mm2. Are marketed by the supplier as, or supplied for use as any of the following: a toy, game or puzzle a construction or modelling kit jewellery to be worn in or around the mouth or nose.
So no, it's not an over-reaction and it doesn't affect makers and hobbyists.
Specific magnets... not all magnets that exist.
No they can't eat magnets just because its "their hobby" or they're "homemade". Ingesting magnets is dangerous for all people.
speak for yourself, i dip my magnets in water before ingesting them.
So by that logic, all sports should be banned. Last year there was an injury, so 100% a 100% ban to keep the children safe.
Also, kids get injured at school every now and then. Ban school! Also kids get injured at home every now and then. Ban homes! Ban parents! Ban food, I heard some people are allergic and even if they aren't, it's a choking hazard!
"Logic" - really?
Here are the details of the actual ban:
https://www.productsafety.gov.au/business/find-banned-products/small-high-powered-magnets-ban
To be banned it has to meet all these criteria:
Are small enough to fit into the small parts cylinder, which is a device used for testing in Australian and international toy standards. Have a magnetic flux index greater than 50 (kG)2 mm2. Are marketed by the supplier as, or supplied for use as any of the following: a toy, game or puzzle a construction or modelling kit jewellery to be worn in or around the mouth or nose.
So, no. That't not logical.
Where on Earth do you live that hand grenades are available to children?
Because while I have tossed a bunch, it was one of the most secure boxes I've seen in my life, before we cracked it open and started tossing them, that is. (The chief didn't want the hassle of returning them to storage so after training the conscripts and there being 75% of a box left, he just told me to toss them asap as he couldn't be arsed to do the paperwork of returning them.)
Edit: see Naich’s reply to my comment. Neodymium magnets as a whole are not, indeed, banned; thanks for the correction!
Neodymium magnets are extremely important for many sectors. It is ridiculous to ban them.
Australia has, for example, shot itself in the foot vis-a-vis the small-audio company market with this, as neodymium magnets are widely used in speakers, headphones, IEMs, and even microphones. Many a legendary audio company has started out of someone's garage, see KLH — this becomes exceedingly difficult when essential resources like neodymium magnets are not available.
Here is what are actually banned:
Magnets that are separate, loose, or supplied in multiples of two or more and meet all the following criteria are banned.
Source: https://www.productsafety.gov.au/business/find-banned-products/small-high-powered-magnets-ban
Can everyone calm down now?
Ah, touché! Clearly I should have looked this up first. Good on you for being civil about this, despite being wrongfully disciplined by trigger-happy lemmings like me (sorry about that), though.
Anyway, the Australian custom audio-driver sector is saved!