13-year-old has major surgery after eating 100 magnets bought on Temu
A 13-year-old boy has undergone major surgery after swallowing 80-100 small magnets purchased on Temu.
Neodymium magnets have been banned since 2014 but are still available through online marketplaces.
Surgeons at Tauranga Hospital had to remove part of the boy’s bowel after he ate up to 100 of the small magnets, according to a case study in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
They said it was “alarming” how difficult it was to enforce the long-standing ban when easily-accessible online marketplaces existed.
The Pasifika Medical Association Group said it highlighted the dangers of online marketplaces in the paediatric population.
“While product safety laws exist in New Zealand that prohibit the sale of high-powered magnets, there is significant challenge in enforcing these laws on products sold on online marketplaces.
“This is especially concerning for our tamariki as these platforms are easily accessible,” a spokesperson said.
University of Auckland professor Alex Sims said small, high-powered magnets were being advertised as fun toys when they could be life-threatening.
“Small high-power magnets have been marketed and sold as fun toys for adults and children when they are sold in sets as they can be used to make different shapes and also be used as fidget toys.
“Unfortunately, they often come as brightly coloured small balls, making them attractive for children to swallow.”
Sims said enforcing the ban on these small magnets was difficult when they were cheap and easy to get through online marketplaces.
“Parents should not be allowing their children to purchase items unsupervised on any online marketplaces, all purchases must be done or at least overseen by parents.”
Temu response
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In a written statement, Temu said the company had launched an internal review after becoming aware of the case from media inquiries.
“We are sorry to learn about the reported incident and wish the boy a full and speedy recovery,” a spokesperson said.
“We take product safety very seriously and continuously monitor our platform to ensure sellers are complying with the safety regulations of the markets they are doing business in.”
The platform had contacted the author of The New Zealand Medical Journal article to obtain more details about the case.
“At this stage, we have not been able to confirm whether the magnets involved were purchased through Temu or identify the specific product listing. Nonetheless, our teams are reviewing relevant listings to ensure full compliance with local safety requirements.
“Any products found to be non-compliant will be removed, and we will take firm action against any sellers found to have breached our platform rules or local regulations.”
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Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
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Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
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43.3% I want to be able to choose.
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