The hazards posed by magnets small enough to be swallowed by a child cannot be overstated. Though children frequently swallow and are injured or killed by magnets, the ingestion of magnets by children under the age of 21 increased more than five-fold over the ten-year period from 2002 to 2011, according to a WashingtonUniversity study analyzing data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. The researchers also reported an increase in serious injuries from magnet ingestion over the study period.
Though children often swallow magnets from children’s products, ingestion of magnets from products intended for adult use was reported to occur even more frequently. Magnet-containing kitchen gadgets and decorative desk items marketed to adults attract a child’s attention. Older children have also been reported to swallow small ball-shaped magnets or get them caught in their noses while attempting to mimic tongue, nose, lip, and cheek piercings they have seen on adults and other children.
The risk of injury or death is increased, the researchers noted, when multiple magnets are swallowed in a single incident. Multiple magnet ingestion can severely damage a child’s intestinal walls and require surgery. Many products, including toys and items intended for adults, contain multiple magnets.
As a prime example, Buckyballs and Buckycubes, desk toys intended for adults, are irresistible to children and were recalled in July 2014 to protect children and teenagers from the risk of injuries that can occur from swallowing more than one of these products’ magnets. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), these products contain multiple loose, tiny-ball-shaped, high-powered magnets that “pose a deadly risk to young children, tweens, and teens, if ingested.” Between 2009 and July 2014, the CPSC received numerous reports of ingestions of these magnets, many of which required surgery.
Legal Liability for Injuries or Deaths from Magnet Ingestion
Who is responsible if your child is injured or killed as a result of swallowing a magnet? The answer may depend on the circumstances of the particular case, including the manner in which the child gained access to the magnet-containing product.
Product Liability
When a child is injured or killed as a result of a defect in a product, the manufacturer and others in the chain of the product’s distribution may be held liable for the damages resulting from such an injury or death under most states’ product-liability laws. Though product-liability law varies somewhat from state to state, most states’ laws will hold a manufacturer, designer, supplier, distributor, assembler, and retailer of a product strictly liable for an injury or death caused by a product’s defect. This strict-liability claim allows the plaintiff to prove his or her case by establishing that the product was defective and that the defect caused the victim’s injury or death, even without a showing of negligence on the part of any of the defendants. The product defect may occur at the design or manufacturing stage as well as through a failure to warn of certain dangers associated with the product’s use.
At the urging of the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics (AAP), the CPSC adopted new safety standards in 2008 for magnet-containing children’s products. CPSC magnet standards only apply to children’s products, however, and not to those intended for adult use (such as the Buckyballs and Buckycubes adult desk toys recalled by the manufacturer in July 2014). Can the manufacturer of a magnet-containing product not designed for children’s use be found legally liable for injuries or deaths caused by the ingestion of one or more of the product’s magnets? Under many states’ product-liability laws, the answer is yes.
Under most states’ laws, a manufacturer and others in the chain of a product’s distribution may be found strictly liable if a product contains a defect, even if the manufacturer and designer of the product has met all applicable standards. In other words, the meeting of industry or other standards does not equal the absence of a defect under these product-liability laws.
Negligence Liability
An individual who negligently allows a child access to a defective or dangerous item or product may be found liable, in an action for negligence, for the injury or death of the child caused by the child’s access to the product. Anyone who has taken on the responsibility to care for a child has a duty, under most states’ negligence laws, to exercise reasonable care for the child’s safety while the child is under that person’s care. If the adult negligently allowed a child access to a Buckyball, for example, and the child was injured or killed as a result of ingesting some of the product’s magnets, that adult—in addition to the defendants in a product-liability action—may be found liable for the child’s injury or death.
Magnets Pose Serious Dangers to Children of All Ages
Today’s writer, Jeff Killino, a highly regarded child-injury attorney and the managing partner of The Killino Firm, P.C., urges adults to take the hazards posed by magnet ingestion very seriously. Attorney Killino is dedicated to seeking justice for children who have been injured or killed by negligence or defective products and has been nationally recognized for his work in such cases on major television networks such as CNN, ABC FOX, and the Discovery Channel, including a case that led to an order compelling Mattel, Inc., to provide free lead testing to children who may have been exposed to lead-containing toys.