The agency has to go through a lengthy court process to do so. The tiny magnets can get lost in carpeting, where others miss them but younger children find them.Īt the end of the meeting, "the vote was 'yes, it's a defective product, yes, we'll proceed with a recall,'" said Midgett, whose doctoral work focused on human development.īut the CPSC couldn't simply force a recall. Parents and older siblings aren't expecting magnets to fall out, Midgett answered, so they're not looking for them. Why did such a young child have access to the magnets, and why didn't the child's parents see him swallow them? One of Midgett's colleagues noted that Kenny was younger than the toy's recommended minimum age of 3, Midgett recalled. Kenny Sweet's death framed the discussion. The staff of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, first met formally to discuss the possibility of a recall more than two months after Midgett's recommendation. And on Christmas the adults watched when Kyle opened his Magnetix with glee.Īs Kyle was playing with his new toys, federal regulators began examining whether Magnetix were dangerous. When she asked Kyle's mother about Magnetix, his mom responded enthusiastically. His grandmother had carefully considered what to get him that year.
The Booke family in Oak Harbor, Wash., thought Magnetix would be perfect for 4-year-old Kyle. Had the agency's top managers done so, the alert could have warned thousands of families to the potential danger of toys given during the holidays. It was around Christmas 2005 when Jonathan Midgett first recommended that Magnetix be recalled. The Tribune as recently as Saturday bought Magnetix toys that should have been removed from shelves.Īnd over the weekend, some major retailers froze sales of Magnetix building sets, responding to the Tribune's investigation. The new recall covers another 4 million boxes - potentially hazardous toys that were allowed on the market for more than a year because the original recall was botched.īut the second recall has proved equally confusing.
After months of inquiries from the Tribune, the Consumer Product Safety Commission in April expanded its recall of Magnetix and admitted it knew of at least 1,500 cases of the toys shedding loose magnets.
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