Products LiabilityOM

VERDICTS AND SETTLEMENTS - PRODUCTS LIABILITY

A Holiday Warning from Sim Osborn

 

During my time as a product liability and personal injury attorney, I have seen toy safety issues garner increased — and much deserved — attention. As a parent I know that there is nothing more precious than the safety and security of our children, and this issue hits directly at the heart of those matters. When we buy toys for our children, we assume that they are safe — they are toys after all. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

In November 2005, a toddler from Redmond, Wash., died after swallowing magnets that had broken away from inside of his cheap plastic toys. It was a parents’ worst nightmare. Imagine, something that you purchased to entertain and amuse your child, something that seemed completely innocuous, resulted in the death of the child you sought to protect above all else.

My firm, Osborn Machler, filed suit against the toy manufacturer, and within a couple weeks, many more families came forward with similar stories. The attention prompted the Consumer Product Liability Commission (CPSC) to issue a voluntary recall. We were awarded tens of millions of dollars in settlements for the families, and just as importantly, we helped strengthen standards for toy manufacturers and brought public attention to this critical issue.

Today, standards continue to become more rigorous. The main driving force for this improvement is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which was passed in 2008. Standards that used to be voluntary are now mandatory, and by Jan. 1, 2012, products will need to be independently certified to show that they are up to the new law’s requirements. Early signs show that this legislation is already improving toy safety; there were 172 toy recalls in 2008 and only 34 in fiscal 2011.

However, there is still work to do. A recent CPSC report stated that there were still 17 toy-related deaths and 252,000 injuries to children 15 years old and younger that required an emergency room visit last year.

Recently, a new danger posed by magnetized toys has come to the public’s collective awareness. Desk toys and stress relievers aimed at adults, such as Nanospheres and BuckyBalls, feature small but powerful magnetized ball bearings, and there have been reports of 14 separate incidents of children swallowing the magnetized balls. Just like the toys from a few years before, when someone swallows more than one magnet, they attract one another through internal organs and can cause serious injuries and even death.

These adult magnet toys are especially dangerous for several reasons. First, they are small, easy to swallow and don’t need to be broken away from any plastic casing before they can be ingested. Second, if they become detached from one another, they can easily be scattered around the room or the entire home, making them prime targets for children who don’t know any better. Lastly, teenagers have been using the powerful magnetizing force to create simulated nose, tongue and cheek piercings, placing the tiny dangerous toys in the worst possible places.

And this new concern regarding magnetized toys highlights an area where the consumer protection laws that enhance safety often lag behind. For example, the CPSIA mostly targets children’s toys, often leaving these toys aimed at adults in a testing and legal “gray area.”

Parents need to be proactive and aware of these dangers, especially now as the holiday gift season is underway. When buying presents for others, consider the health and safety risks that may play into the situation, especially if children will have access to them.

When it comes to these magnetized toys especially, consider the circumstances before purchasing. Will children or teenagers have access to them? How difficult will it be to restrict access? Is it worth the risk, and the potentially tragic results?

If you do decide to purchase these toys, put them in a place where children don’t have access to them, whether that is a room that they aren’t allowed to enter, or locked in a drawer out of reach. If you have teenagers, talk to them about the dangers these magnets can cause. Even if you don’t have them in your home, they may have access to them through friends.

If you suspect that a child has swallowed one of these high-powered magnets, seek medical attention immediately, and look for abdominal symptoms, such as abdominal pains, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. If someone in your family has been injured by these magnetized toys, please contact Osborn Machler to learn more about your legal options.

- Sim Osborn

 

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