Federal regulators said for the first time on Wednesday that a child died last year and about 7,700 children have visited emergency rooms swallowing small, high-powered magnets like those found in popular desk toys.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission's staff announced the deaths and ingestions in a proposed final rule it sent to the full commission. It would ban the type of high-powered magnets made popular by Buckyballs, which were recalled in July. The full commission is expected to vote on the rule later this month.
Magnets would be allowed only if they were large enough not to fit through a cylinder used to test choking hazards. Buckyballs founder Craig Zucker, who dissolved the Buckyballs company in December 2012, has a new company called United We Ball, which is believed to have the only magnetic product that would be allowed under the rule.
Zucker declined to comment.
Annaka Chaffin was 19 months old last August when she died after swallowing seven small magnetic balls from a necklace her brothers brought home from school .
An autopsy revealed magnets in the small intestine of the child. The magnets became attached to one another, which perforated her bowel.
