Today we’ve been told about a customer who gave neodymium magnets to a six year old to ‘play with’.
We don’t like having to issue warnings to our customers, but we do so because we are a responsible supplier and we are trying to protect them from either damaging their magnets or damaging themselves.
Neodymium magnets are not and never should be toys. They are dangerous.
- When they jump they can break, crack, chip and/or shatter, the resulting shrapnel is sharp and can travel long distances.
- If they jump and you have fingers or soft tissue between two magnets (or magnets and steel), they can and do cause blood blisters and skin tears – Guy is currently sporting just such a tear after two 50x50x25mm neodymium blocks jumped and trapped a part of the pad of his thumb.
- There has been a worrying trend for small neodymium magnets to be used as fake nasal or lip piercings which is beyond dangerous. Accidentally inhaling or swallowing neodymium magnets can cause serious injury to both the small and large intestines including compression and tears. This can be life threatening! Do not put any neodymium magnets in or near any of the holes on your body.
Regular customers will already know that we send a black and yellow warning leaflet with their VAT invoice printed on the reverse, with every order but in the instance from this morning, clearly this wasn’t read or was overlooked completely. We have, therefore, compiled a table of minimum age requirements for using different types of magnets and the type of supervision required.
Minimum age requirements for children handling magnets
