[bgill]

I didn’t know what a buckyball was but they look like lots of fun. If a kid is dumb enough to eat them, then they look small enough to flush on out in a couple days with no harm done.

Getting fined for unintentionally feeding turkeys? So, if you squished a knat that was flying around your head and it fell to it’s death to the ground and a turkey wandered by and ate it, you’d be fined for unintentionally feeding the turkey? I call fowl on that.

[wbill]

If a kid is dumb enough to eat them, then they look small enough to flush on out in a couple days with no harm done

I read something about them awhile ago. They're magnetic, so they stick together in the small intestine and don't pass through.

Still and all, though .... it's a foolish thing to ban. More likely the kid will hit himself on the head with it while pulling it off your desk, than eat the things.

I guess it's too much to ask parents to be responsible and put away things that little kids shouldn't have ... like Mrs WBill and I did. (and still do) Biggest surprise, and something that I learned about on FR? Keep the paper shredder unplugged to keep little fingers out of it. We're pretty careful, but I never in a million years would have thought of that without reading something about it on FR.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: they look small enough to flush on out in a couple days with no harm done. ::

the concern is ingesting multiple buckeyballs. They could stick to each other across and through the intestine walls. Digestive impact, that.

[DBrow]

“then they look small enough to flush on out in a couple days with no harm done.”

The issue is, and this has happened, that a kid eats TWO magnets, not at the same time. When they meet in the intestines, they immediately click together, pinching one intestine loop to another. If you have ever got a piece of skin nipped between two strong magnets you’ll appreciate the force here, the magnets actually can penetrate the intestine wall.

It has only happened a few times but in each case the outcome was very unpleasant.

Eating ONE magnet won’t do anything.

[zeugma]

Swallowing one buckyball is not the issue. The trouble is, like any magnet they are very strongly attracted to other magnets. So... eat one, and it starts working its way through the system... then eat another, and it may well find the first one as it passes through the intestines. Surgery is the only thing that will get them out at that point, and where they joined, there is likely to be significant tissue damage. They have 5 separate warning labels on their packaging about the danger of ingestion.

That said, more people are harmed by pencils each year. Fedgov is a deadly virus.