Danger to human health or safety assessment for products containing small powerful magnets

Table 3 was first published in July 2020 to consolidate information for regulated parties in an effort to increase openness and transparency regarding Health Canada's evaluation of products that pose a danger to human health or safety. While this entry was added to Table 3 upon initial posting of the table in July 2020, the danger to human health or safety was previously communicated by Health Canada to regulated parties. This assessment does not present new decisions, and is being published for clarity on the decisions made previously.

Legislative background

The purpose of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA) is to protect the public by addressing or preventing dangers to human health or safety that are posed by consumer products in Canada, including those that circulate within Canada and those that are imported. Any person who manufactures, imports, advertises, sells or tests a consumer product must comply with all applicable requirements of the CCPSA and its regulations. Paragraphs 7(a) and 8(a) of the CCPSA prohibit the manufacture, importation, advertisement or sale of any consumer product that is a "danger to human health or safety". The CCPSA defines the term as follows:

Danger to human health or safety means any unreasonable hazard — existing or potential — that is posed by a consumer product during or as a result of its normal or foreseeable use and that may reasonably be expected to cause the death of an individual exposed to it or have an adverse effect on that individual's health — including an injury — whether or not the death or adverse effect occurs immediately after the exposure to the hazard, and includes any exposure to a consumer product that may reasonably be expected to have a chronic adverse effect on human health.

Scope of affected products

Certain products containing small powerful magnets

Includes:

*Magnet sets and magnetic products can be sold in various shapes (i.e. spherical, cube, cuboid shapes, etc.).

Excludes:

Hazards of concern

Magnets that are very small can be easily swallowed or inhaled. Unlike other small objects that would be more likely to pass normally through the digestive system if swallowed, when more than one small powerful magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract one another while travelling through the digestive system. The magnets can then pinch together and create a blockage and slowly tear through the intestinal walls, causing perforations. The resulting injuries can be very serious and life-threatening.

IncidentsFootnote 1

Health Canada is aware of 29 reports of incidents that occurred between June 20, 2011 and December 31, 2022 related to small powerful magnet sets in Canada. Of the 29 reports, Health Canada received four reports of children ingesting magnetic toy parts, including three that resulted in injuries. In 2011, a three-year-old child required emergency surgery to repair bowel perforations and fistulas that resulted from ingesting 18 magnetic components from a building toy. In 2014, a three-year-old child ingested powerful magnetic components from a toy building set which were removed non-surgically. In 2021, a 20-months-old child required 3 surgeries to repair eight bowel perforations that resulted from ingesting 24 magnetic components from a building toy. For the other report, two five-year-old children were involved and sustained no injuries.

Health Canada is aware of 10 reports of incidents that occurred between June 20, 2011 and December 31, 2022 involving magnets in other jurisdictions. Of the 10, five reported children ingesting magnetic toy components. In addition, reviews have been published in medical journals Footnote 2Footnote 3.

Additional information on injuries involving magnets was provided by the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP). CHIRPP records are based on the collection and analysis of data on injuries to people (mainly children) who are seen in emergency rooms of participating hospitals in Canada. CHIRPP records, which cover a six-year period starting from 2005, indicate that of 327 magnet-related cases recorded, the most common injury was related to ingestion of one or more magnets (73%). With respect to the patient age distribution, approximately:

In terms of patient outcomes, 53% of the cases required emergency room treatment, and 3% required hospital admission. Most of the cases that led to hospital admission involved magnet ingestion. No further specificity on the products involved, nature of injuries sustained, treatments, or outcomes is available from the CHIRPP records.

Danger to human health or safety assessment

Based on the danger to human health or safety considerations and details discussed in the following sections, Health Canada believes that the following products likely pose a danger to human health or safety:

  • Certain products containing small powerful magnets that do not conform to the applicable criteria set out in:
  • section 43 of the Toys Regulations under the CCPSA;
  • section 4.38 of ASTM F963-17 – Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety;
  • section 4.23 of EN 71-1:2014+A1:2018 – Safety of toys. Mechanical and physical properties;
  • section 4.31 of ISO 8124-1:2022 – Safety of toys - Part 1: Safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties; or
  • the equivalent.

Health Canada recognizes that there may be other possible health or safety concerns with the use of these or similar products. Industry should review their products for all potential hazards and respond appropriately to make sure they are safe for consumers. The Consumer Product Safety Program of Health Canada operates as a post-market regulatory regime, meaning that there is no pre-market review or approval of consumer products by Health Canada.

Health Canada may update this assessment as warranted.

Danger to human health or safety considerations

Considerations for a product to pose a potential danger to human health or safety are outlined in Health Canada's Industry Guidance - "Danger to Human Health or Safety" Posed by Consumer Products. The main considerations assessed are:

  1. Unreasonable hazard
  2. Existing or potential hazard
  3. Normal or foreseeable use
  4. May reasonably be expected to cause
    1. Death
    2. Adverse effect on health

1. Unreasonable hazard

The consideration of unreasonable hazard includes the following components.

a. Inherent hazard

The attraction of magnetic components is an inherent property of these products and it is intended by design. However, the hazard presented by the ingestion of small powerful magnets is not commonly known.

b. Severity of hazard

The result of swallowing small powerful magnets can be very serious and even fatal. Swallowing incidents have resulted in considerable damage to the gastrointestinal tissues and required emergency surgical treatment. There can also be serious long-term health consequences.

A further concern regarding this unique hazard is that swallowing small powerful magnets may happen with no signs of physical distress or discomfort showing for many days. The non-specific symptoms that eventually develop may include vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Because of the similarity of these symptoms to gastroenteritis (commonly known as the stomach flu), parents may not seek medical attention until severe trauma has developed. Additionally, medical practitioners may not recognize ingested foreign bodies as small powerful magnets and may not initially treat patients with the urgency warranted.

c. Intended and foreseeable users

The intended users of small powerful magnets, including magnet sets, are adults. Reasonably foreseeable users include children and teens. Children and teens have unintentionally swallowed the small powerful magnets when they played with them in foreseeable ways, such as: using the magnets to mimic a tongue, lip or nose piercing; attaching them to braces; mistaking the magnets for candy; or simply in general exploratory play.

d. Obviousness of hazard

It is not expected to be obvious to users that small powerful magnets may pose a magnet ingestion hazard. Many rare earth element magnets are so powerful that, if ingested, they can attract across several layers of intestinal tissue. If swallowed, magnets may cause serious, long-term health consequences. Some reported incidents have involved extensive damage to the intestines that required emergency surgery.

Swallowing small powerful magnets may happen with no signs of physical distress or discomfort showing for many days. Therefore, medical attention may not be sought until severe trauma has developed. Additionally, medical practitioners may not recognize ingested foreign bodies as small powerful magnets and may not initially treat patients with the urgency warranted.

e. Social utility

Small powerful magnets, such as those in novelty magnet sets, are intended to be manipulated by consumers for general entertainment, such as puzzle working, sculpture building, mental stimulation or stress relief. There is no social utility to manipulating magnets, and many alternative products can be used by consumers for general entertainment.

There is low social utility to the educational value of magnetic properties.

f. Available alternatives

Many puzzle working, sculpture building, mental stimulation or stress relief products exist on the market and they do not present the same magnet ingestion hazard.

Education about magnetic properties can be taught without products that pose this ingestion hazard.

g. Consensus-based safety standards or government regulations

Due to the serious magnet ingestion hazard posed by small powerful magnets in children's toys, several jurisdictions have implemented risk management strategies to help reduce incidents:

The magnet-related requirements are aligned across the current editions of the four documents outlined above.

While these requirements specifically apply to toys intended for children under 14 years of age, they also address the magnet ingestion hazard presented by small powerful magnets.

These documents set out criteria that address the magnet ingestion hazard, including:


The small parts cylinder is illustrated in each of the referenced documents.

The magnetic flux index is measured according to the method described in each of the referenced documents.

There are products available in the Canadian marketplace that appear to conform to the applicable criteria outlined above.

2. Existing or potential hazard

Incident reports from Canada and the United States indicate the presence of an existing or potential magnet ingestion hazard.

3. Normal or foreseeable use (including foreseeable misuse)

Children may access and swallow the small powerful magnets in magnet sets in foreseeable ways during play, either intentionally or unintentionally. Young children are vulnerable to incidents because of their exploratory mouthing behaviour. Older children are vulnerable to incidents because the strength of magnetic attraction enables a multitude of creative play opportunities generally unrelated to the manufacturer's intended use. Incident reports indicate that older children swallow magnets when they mistake magnets for candy, use their teeth to separate magnets when building structures, attach magnets to their braces, attach magnets across their cheek, use the magnets to pretend to have a lip or tongue piercing, and use the magnets in other ways.

4. May reasonably be expected to cause

a. Death

The result of swallowing small powerful magnets can be very serious and even fatal. Swallowing incidents have resulted in considerable damage to the gastrointestinal tissues and required emergency surgical treatment. There can also be serious long-term health consequences.

A further concern regarding this unique hazard is that swallowing small powerful magnets may happen with no signs of physical distress or discomfort showing for many days. The non-specific symptoms that eventually develop may include vomiting, diarrhea and flu-like abdominal pain. Because of the similarity of these symptoms to the stomach flu, medical attention may not be sought until severe trauma has developed. Additionally, medical practitioners may not recognize ingested foreign bodies as small powerful magnets and may not initially treat patients with the urgency warranted.

It is therefore reasonable to expect that certain products containing small powerful magnets that do not conform to the applicable criteria outlined above to address the magnet ingestion hazard may cause death. Health Canada is not aware of any deaths caused by magnet ingestion in Canada.

b. Adverse effect on health

The circumstances that may reasonably be expected to cause death may also reasonably be expected to cause adverse effects on health.

Health Canada is aware of Canadian reports of adverse effects on health related to magnets. The most common injury was related to ingestion of one or more magnets.

It is therefore reasonable to expect that certain products containing small powerful magnets that do not conform to the applicable criteria outlined above to address the magnet ingestion hazard may cause an adverse effect on human health.

If you require additional information regarding this Danger to Human Health or Safety Assessment, please contact a Health Canada Consumer Product Safety Office via email (hc.ccpsa-lcspc.sc@canada.ca) or telephone at 1-866-662-0666 (toll-free within Canada and the United States).

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Health Canada receives reports on an ongoing basis and does not validate details of every report it receives. Incident report numbers are based on the data available at the time of publication.

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

Gilger M.A., Noel A. Fatal Attraction, American Academy of Pediatrics 2012, 33 (6); 1

Return to footnote 2 referrer

Footnote 3

Hodges N.L., Denny S.A., Smith G.A. Rare-Earth Magnet Ingestion–Related Injuries in the Pediatric Population: A Review, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2017, 11, 3: 259-263

Return to footnote 3 referrer

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