Buckyball, Crystal Mud … Watch out for the ＂online celebrity＂ children’s toys that hurt people.
In the "Children’s Companion Home" in Nanbian Village, Gongfang Town, Le ‘an County, Jiangxi Province, the "Children’s Companion Mom" took the children to play with toys. Xinhua news agency
[Talking about health]
Magnetic buckyball, jelly-like crystal mud, luminous balloon … … These "online celebrity" toys, which have sprung up in recent years, are likely to become "sharp weapons" to hurt children. According to media reports, in the past summer vacation, many children in Guangdong, Hubei, Xinjiang and other places suffered gastrointestinal injuries due to swallowing buckyball by mistake, and even needed surgery. What other children’s toys need attention? Where are their security risks? Our reporter sorted out the consumption tips issued by the Defective Product Management Center of the State Administration of Market Supervision, selected some children’s toys that are currently popular in the market but have hidden dangers, analyzed their safety hazards, and called on the whole society to pay more attention to the safety of children’s toys.
My two-year-old daughter often has a stomachache recently. Her parents thought it was a gastrointestinal problem. As a result, she was sent to the hospital for examination and found that there were four intestinal perforations in her body. Parents are both afraid and puzzled. Why do children have intestinal perforation? It turned out that there was a magnetic bead toy named "buckyball" at home that was swallowed by the girl by mistake, and the hospital finally took the magnetic beads out of the girl through emergency surgery … … This is a recent report in the media. This hospital has treated 7 children who swallowed buckyball by mistake in the last month or so.
This is not the only report that children’s toys hurt people, and buckyball is not the only children’s toys that hurt people. Magnetic buckyball, jelly-like crystal mud, luminous balloon … … These "online celebrity" toys, which are novel or fun, are ignited by online social platforms, and often become dangerous goods that hurt children.
The Defective Product Management Center of the State Administration of Market Supervision is responsible for the defect investigation and public opinion monitoring of all kinds of products on the market, and issues consumption tips to recall the defective products. The reporter found that children-related products, including toys, accounted for almost two-thirds of the consumption tips released by official website. The Quality Development Bureau of the General Administration of Market Supervision introduced at the theme activity of children’s products safety education on June 1st this year that since 2008, China has carried out 1,189 recalls of children’s products, accounting for 49.6% of the recalls of consumer goods, involving nearly 6 million pieces, and one recall of children’s products is every two recalls of consumer goods on average.
These toys and other children’s products with defects in design or quality, in order to attract children, excessively pursue fun and ignore safety. In particular, the security risks of the novel toys that attract attention on the Internet and have the "online celebrity" effect cannot be ignored.
Buckyball and the small magnetic beads of the magnet pen, "wearing the intestines and breaking the stomach"
Buckyball is a kind of magnetic beads with a diameter of about 5mm. Many buckyball can be combined into various shapes at will with the help of magnetic force, which has been advertised by merchants as "educational toys" and is very popular with children and parents. There is also a magnet pen with a similar design with buckyball, which is also a new online celebrity product in recent years. In addition to the normal writing function, this pen is inlaid with magnets at both ends, and with matching steel balls, it can realize a variety of combined games by magnetic force. However, buckyball and the magnetic pen, which are fun and creative products, actually have great security risks.
The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision once published a case in which a 13-year-old boy in Guizhou sucked a magnet into his mouth while playing with a magnet pen in class, and then used another magnet to attract the magnet in his mouth. As a result, the two magnets successively entered the abdomen along the esophagus. When I went to the hospital for examination, I found that the two magnets were attracted tightly across the stomach muscle layer, and a 0.1 cm perforation was chiseled.
"There are not a few cases of such magnet injuries, and most of them are concentrated in children aged 1 to 10." The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision pointed out in the consumption tips that small magnetic parts such as magnetic beads are more likely to be swallowed by children by mistake, and if they enter the trachea, they will cause the danger of suffocation; If it enters the digestive tract, it will cause vomiting and abdominal pain, and it will lead to gastrointestinal damage; Especially when two or more magnets are swallowed, the magnets will adsorb each other through the gastrointestinal wall in the digestive system, and continue to generate pressure, which may cause gastrointestinal perforation or intestinal obstruction, which may be life-threatening in severe cases. In general, these small magnetic parts can only be removed by surgery, which will cause permanent damage to children’s digestive system.
The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision reminds that there are many kinds of magnet pens sold in the market, but most of them are three-no products. Not only do they have no factory name, address and product certificate, but also there are no warning instructions on the pen body and packaging, so the safety cannot be effectively guaranteed. It is recommended not to buy such products.
Borax poisoning of "mud" toys such as crystal mud should not be underestimated.
The charm of magnet toys lies in the creative experience of combination play, and similar to it, "mud" toys also have such functions. In recent years, all kinds of soft, sticky, jelly-like "mud" toys have become popular around campus and online platforms. They have different names, such as Crystal Mud, slime, Bubble Mud, Cotton Mud, Poke Mud and Snowflake Mud, but they have common characteristics — — Colorful, soft to the touch, can change various shapes, and can also be used to blow bubbles, draw pictures, etc., which is deeply loved by children.
However, they are not real mud, but are made of many chemicals. These "mud" contain a substance that may be harmful to health — — Borax.
According to the introduction of the Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision, polyvinyl alcohol, a polymer material dissolved in water, reacts with borax (also known as coagulant aid), and the dissolved polyvinyl alcohol is pulled together by the anions of borax to form a hydrogel with a network structure; On this basis, hand sanitizer, emulsion, pigment, beads, clay, etc. are added to make various "mud" toys such as crystal mud.
These "mud" toys are brightly colored, similar to jelly, and usually have their own straws, which can blow bubbles nominally. When children blow bubbles with straws, the product comes into close contact with the mouth, which may lead to the risk of borax poisoning. The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision explained that borax is extremely harmful to human health. Excessive intake in a short period of time will cause nausea, vomiting, depression, convulsions, skin flushing, circulatory failure and other symptoms. Excessive intake for a long time will lead to cumulative poisoning of multiple organs, causing damage to organs such as liver, kidney, brain and lung. The toxic dose of borax is 1 to 3 grams for adults, 15 to 20 grams for adults and 5 grams for children.
At present, borax is prohibited as a food additive in many countries, and the intake of boron is limited. The national standard (GB5749-2006) of Hygienic Standard for Drinking Water in China stipulates that the limit of boron in drinking water is 0.5 mg/L. The EU’s requirement for boron content in toys made of liquid, pigment, jelly and other materials is limited to 300mg/kg. The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision has tested 10 kinds of finished crystal mud products randomly purchased, and found that the boron content of 8 kinds of products exceeded 300mg/kg, and the highest one reached 1336mg/kg, far exceeding the safety limit of boron content in various countries. Once children eat by mistake when blowing bubbles with these crystal mud, there may be a danger of borax poisoning.
Perhaps it is realized that this toy with borax directly added is easy to be found, and some merchants have introduced the so-called "non-toxic crystal mud" products, adding some daily chemical products to the glue containing polyvinyl alcohol instead of borax, such as washing powder, laundry detergent, shower gel, guar gum and so on. "This is actually very confusing, because these daily chemical products actually contain borax ingredients, and children also have the safety hazard of eating poisoning during playing." The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision pointed out in the consumption tips that any toy containing borax does not meet the requirements of our country.
The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision also specially reminded that homemade "mud" toys are more dangerous than finished products, and children will be directly exposed to large doses of borax and other chemical ingredients during play. Skin exposure to these chemicals for a long time is likely to cause chemical burns, allergies or cumulative poisoning; If children abuse the preparation container during play, such as drinking water from a glass filled with borax, or not washing their hands in time after play, it is easy to eat borax or other chemical ingredients by mistake, leading to the danger of poisoning.
For toys such as crystal mud, especially homemade "mud" toys, the advice given by the Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision is: Don’t buy!
Online celebrity balloons will glow or explode.
On this summer night, you can often see sparkling balloons with colorful light in squares or parks, which are very popular with children. This kind of balloon first attracted attention on online social media, and was called online celebrity balloon by many people. However, although the online celebrity balloon is beautiful, it has hidden dangers. According to media reports, there was a balloon explosion in online celebrity somewhere in Jiangsu province, and four people were hospitalized with different degrees of burns.
How can a balloon explode? How serious is the harm?
According to the Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision, this luminous balloon is mainly composed of transparent balloons, multicolored light strips and battery boxes, and its structure is very simple. A string of thin multicolored LED strip is wrapped around the surface of the transparent balloon, and a small battery box is tied to the tail end of the traction rope. The battery is placed in a plastic box, and the power supply is directly connected to the light strip, and the light can be emitted when the switch is turned on.
The balloon itself is a pressure vessel, and with this design and construction, the safety risk is higher. Testing by the Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision found that balloons in online celebrity are mostly made of plastic, and once they come into contact with high-temperature heat sources (such as stoves) or open flames (such as lighters), balloons may explode. On the one hand, the surface temperature of the melted plastic is very high at high temperature, and the plastic liquid dripped from the melted plastic will cause serious burns and scalds if it sticks to human skin. On the other hand, balloon deflagration will produce irritating toxic gas, which may cause burns and other injuries to human respiratory tract. In addition, due to the bare wires, sparks may be generated during use, which may cause the balloon to explode.
Some experts pointed out that the gas inside the online celebrity balloon may also become a safety hazard. For safety reasons, balloons are generally filled with inert gases such as helium, and hydrogen has long been prohibited from being used to inflate balloons because of its flammability and explosiveness. However, because hydrogen is cheaper than helium, some unscrupulous merchants may still use hydrogen to inflate online celebrity balloons. In a online celebrity balloon explosion reported by the media, experts pointed out after analysis that "judging from the power of the balloon explosion described by the injured, the balloon they bought is likely to pass off hydrogen as helium".
The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision reminds that children should play such balloons under the care of their parents; Stay away from fire sources, heat sources and sharp objects when playing with balloons, and don’t use lighters to burn the traction line of balloons; It is best not to buy such balloons when the weather is very hot, because high temperature weather is more likely to cause balloon explosion; Don’t take a balloon in a car, subway, elevator, etc. Once an explosion occurs, the impact of a closed space will be very great.
Laser pen can cause permanent damage to eyes. Don’t play with children.
The light is dazzling and dangerous. Online celebrity balloon, laser pointer.
I don’t know when, the laser pointer used as an indicator in classroom teaching, conference explanation and other places has become a toy for many children and a dangerous toy. As a result, there have been many reports in the media: "When a laser pointer shines, the eyes of a 7-year-old boy can’t see", "When an 8-year-old boy plays with a laser pointer, his eyes are permanently damaged", and "The sampling tests of online shopping for children’s laser pens all exceed the standard, and the harmful visual damage is irreversible" … … According to the Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision, according to the product injury monitoring and network public opinion monitoring, injury accidents involving laser pens have occurred frequently in recent years.
Laser pointer, also called laser pointer, is a portable device that uses battery and laser module (light emitting diode) to emit visible light beam, which is mainly used to accurately indicate the target at a long distance. In China, according to the degree of radiation hazard from low to high, laser products are divided into the following grades: class 1, class 1M, class 2, class 2M, class 3R, class 3B and class 4. The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision pointed out that if laser products are not used properly, it will cause serious damage to human body, especially for products of 3R and above. Laser pens sold on the Internet usually have very high power and can even light matches, cigarettes, clothes and so on.
The power is so high that it can ignite clothes. If you irradiate your eyes, the consequences can be imagined. According to experts, due to the characteristics of eye imaging, when the laser passes through the eye, it will be focused on a very small point on the retina, which will lead to an instantaneous increase in temperature and destroy the photosensitive cells of the retina. If the laser energy is strong enough, it will cause permanent damage without causing blink reflex (usually less than 1 second). It should be noted that low-power laser may also cause harm to eyes, and some high-intensity lasers still do great harm to eyes even after scattering from the surface of objects. Children in the developmental stage have delicate eye tissues and thin retinas, which are more vulnerable to injury.
Laser pointer will not only cause direct damage to eyes, but also interfere with normal vision, which may lead to other accidents. For example, illuminating vehicles, airplanes, etc. with a laser pen may affect the normal vision of drivers and pilots and cause serious accidents.
Of course, the laser pen is not unusable, but should be used scientifically and safely. According to different use occasions and users, the laser pen with corresponding radiation level should be carefully selected. The Defective Product Management Center of the General Administration of Market Supervision reminds that laser pen products can be used in situations such as classroom teaching and conference explanation. The laser in children’s toys should meet the requirements of Class 1 laser radiation power limit.
"The laser pens sold as toys in the market are mostly higher than this limit, which has great security risks and cannot be bought and played for children." The defective product management center of the General Administration of Market Supervision stressed.