Zen Magnets Company publicly refuses CPSC recall

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 1, 2012 - Following the Administrative Complaint issued last week against Maxfied and Oberton -- maker of Buckyballs, the leading brand of magnet spheres -- the Consumer Product Safety Commision (CPSC) has begun to issue recall requests to other brands of high-powered magnet spheres, including one sent to Zen Magnets LLC, a company which has no record of product injuries.

"If you slice us down, the last of our company's efforts will be to siren this injustice before we fall," said Founder Shihan Qu, in a recent press release made by Zen Magnets. The release was in the form of a public response to the CPSC voluntary recall requests made by the Office of Compliance and Field Operations of the CPSC. "We have had exactly Zero ingestion incidents... We have never referred to our product as a toy. We have never put our product on toy shelves, where kids can grab them and shove them in the faces of their parents." The direct response to the federal agency also includes download links to a growing collection of consumer letters addressed to members of the CPSC and Senator Gillibrand, who has been the most vocal public figure for the magnet sphere ban. Over two dozen essays urging against the ban have collected since the Zen Magnets company began their essay contest five days ago.

The CPSC has been targeting makers of "aggregated masses of small, powerful, individual magnets," claiming the products create a substantial risk of injury to the public. Although there have been no recorded injuries caused by Zen Magnets, the statistical danger of comparable products is questionable. Of over 2.5 million sets of Buckyballs sold, two dozen children and teenagers have ingested the magnets. Some suffered internal injuries that required surgical intervention after swallowing more than one of the tiny magnets, which snapped together inside their gastrointestinal tract.

In the seemingly frustrated response to the recall request, Qu accused the the CPSC of "lacking perspective" and "showing no attempt to perform a cost-benefit analysis". Zen Magnets is the second company to publicly refuse the CPSC directly on their website http://ZenMagnets.com, after http://GetBuckyBalls.com. This is also one of the first times the CPSC has faced a public petition (http://savemagnets.com) against their actions, marking one of the most unfavorable actions in the history of the consumer watchdog group. Currently, the petition against the "magnet prohibition" has approximately one thousand signatures.

"Considering the documented therapeutic, artistic (see http://gallery.zenmagnets.com) and educational benefits, there must be some context in which magnet spheres can be sold, right?  It would much be less ridiculous if the CPSC was trying to pass regulation that required some sort of age verification similar to video game sites and movie sites. Even if magnets were to be regulated like tobacco (which would still be crazy), it would be more rational [than the current request]."

You can find the full response, a copy of the CPSC request, and consumer essays at:
http://zenmagnets.com/index.php?p=1_18_CPSC_Press_Release