Zen Magnets is Dead?

I have a new adorable baby boy! And he is just the cutest and sweetest and squishiest.

While the battle for reasonable magnet regulation is a cause I believe in, it’s essentially a time+money consuming activist hobby for me. The outcome affects none of my current or future business affairs, and the opportunity cost to my (new lovely doughy faced) family has risen significantly

With that said…

Meet

Even though I no longer have a horse in the high powered magnet business, the data shows that the CPSC’s continued overreach on a ban for all ages on high-powered hobby magnets neither safe nor reasonable, so team common sense is making one more stand, in the form of MagnetSafety.org.

While half of me wants my new precious little man to stay an adorable floppy gravity slave forever, the other part of me anxiously minds the future with thoughts like: “should I teach him how to use magnets before or after I teach him how to drive?” and “Do I teach him high powered magnet safety, before or after I teach him how to use a band saw?”

Right now, the CPSC’s answer to those questions are “Never”, and “At No Age Ever”. In one line, this is why MagnetSafety.org was created.

This is about more than just finding the middle ground between a complete ban and unrestricted access to magnets. Rather the opposite, maximizing magnet safety requires optimal consumer education, which is why the CPSC bans have been counterproductive. It’s not like the adult magnet bans have put a dent on demand, all they’ve done is punish and shoo American companies while having little effect on over-seas grey market and counterfeit sales of high powered magnets. The result? Unsafe labeling and packaging abound, and more magnet ingestions injuries than ever.

At MagnetSafety.org, I hope we find clever ways to educate consumers on safe magnet use use, and strive for regulation that optimizes safety without just trashing the consent of consumers. Our harm reduction efforts will be focused on improvement of age restrictions, warnings, labels, child-resistant packaging, and sales methods.

Beyond the legal challenge of the CPSC’s new magnet ban, we’re actively trying to develop voluntary ASTM standards. And we’ll be keeping tabs on: magnet injury data, CPSC enforcement effectiveness, indicators of demand, and usage (good and bad).

We’re fighting a ban on magnets, but we’re fighting for the right for hobbyists and educators to use them safely.

Wanna help!? Check out MagnetSafety.org to sign up for updates about action ideas, research, and related.

Let’s show the CPSC that we’re not gonna back down, and we are smart enough to prevent kids from eating magnets. And even if you don’t care much about magnets, maybe you’ll want to follow along just because you support truth, harm reduction, and stopping government overreach.

More soon,

– Shihan Qu
Founder of Zen Magnets and Director of MagnetSafety.org

David Egilman, February 24, 2022 9:08:56 AM, said:

There is no reason to sell these products. Teh standard gives the misimpression that the products can be sold safely. No warning is adequate. For example: This does not account for non-English speakers, mentally impaired children or adults (think dementia). The suggested warnings have not been tested for efficacy. Finally the participation of sellers and manufacturers (more than 1) is a violation of anti-trust laws. This “standard” blocks competition over safety as do most similar ASTM standards.

———————-

Shihan Qu, February 24, 2022 1:33:13 PM, said:

Dear David Egilman,

I realize you’re a relatively recent addition to this group, so I’ll go over some of the previously discussed matters which you brought up, even though they are out of the scope of this workgroup. You’ve brought up 4 separate points, which I’ll address separately.

1. > “There is no reason to sell these products.”

Usually the magnet-ban advocates don’t say the quiet part out loud, so I applaud your frankness in stating your bias on the matter. I imagine your puerility with the usage of the product, stirred with your observations of how dangerous the magnets can be if ingested, lead you to fiercely claim that there is “no reason” for this product to exist.

I’ve also studied the injury profiles and incidents, and I place great weight on how hazardous strong magnets can be if misused; yet I’ve also heard from thousands who have personally given their accounts about how magnets have improved their lives, and from dozens of teachers who have found great benefits in the unique utility of bipolar magnets with infinite sides. I’m aware of more published academic articles in mathematics, physics and chemistry that are about (or feature) high powered magnet spheres, than there are medical journal articles about the dangers of their ingestion (of which there are many).
Here are a few to expand your understanding of the usefulness of the products:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2399-6528/aadfc9/meta
https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1119/1.4973409
https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cphc.201800560
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsenergylett.9b02287

And even in the hypothetical that there wasn’t a huge audience and community who appreciate high powered magnet spheres — for example, even if there weren’t billions of views on the first page of “magnet balls” on a youtube search, to show an indicator of interest of magnet spheres is statistically likely to supersede whatever hobby you care about (like, unless it’s like taylor swift or a mainstream high-skull-impact sport that you love) — it doesn’t change that:

Whether or not the product has a “reason” isn’t *at all* up to you. Utility, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

2. > “Teh standard gives the misimpression that the products can be sold safely. No warning is adequate. The suggested warnings have not been tested for efficacy.”

In my personal experience working with the wide range of first-time magnet sphere users to magnet super hobbyists, I’ve seen that people absolutely can use magnets safely. It’s not the first time there’s been a product that is dangerous if ingested.

One interesting thing that I’ve learned in the past 10 years is that an industry has been built upon warnings: Their language, size, placement, and even font, have consistent policies that are proportional to the hazards involved. Certainly through significant testing.

Yet, what we have here in ASTM-F3458-21 errs far on the side of safety. The warnings are stronger — in terms of placement, quantity, and language — than fireworks and cigarettes combined.

You might say, “well the hazards are hidden” and “people tend not to read warnings.” But most hazards are hidden until they are learned, which is the entire point of warnings. And while true that in the age of Apple terms and agreements, not everyone reads warnings, the purpose of the child resistant packaging is exactly to force consumers through user interaction design to read the warnings.

What’s truly unsupported by data, is the conclusion that no warning can possibly exist that — when supported by proper packaging design and sales methods — would adequately address the hazard.

I would argue that the removal of nuance from the discussion of magnet safety, and the pretense that magnets must either result in a torrent of injuries or be banned entirely, is exactly what led us down the path of so many horrific injuries in the first place. And to continue doing so as a future injury mitigation strategy would be similarly unwise and unsafe.

3. > “Finally the participation of sellers and manufacturers (more than 1) is a violation of anti-trust laws.”

My steelmanning interpretation of your concern is that companies with the profit motive should not have significant control over a group that is seeking to improve safety. A valiant generality if that’s what you’re trying to say. But here are my two thoughts about that, in this specific context:

A. It’s an entirely false narrative that manufacturers have a majority say here. It’s a narrative that was even pushed by the Washington Post (at the time, 2 companies actually sold the product). Perhaps a mistruth oft repeated because it’s necessary to garner sufficient support for a ban. The fact is, right now, only one company (Nanodots) actually produces the high powered magnets in question, of the 30 (40?, 50?) members of this workgroup. Almost all of those who support safe use of magnets here (instead of non-consensual forced non-use), including myself, have no profit motive. And indeed, even if the current version of F3458-21 becomes law, I will not be one to sell the high powered magnet sets in the future.

B. ASTM already prevents membership from being dominated by product producers. So is it your suggestion that those to be governed should have no say in the consideration of how they are governed? Frankly, this makes no sense to me, but maybe I put too much conviction in the principles of democracy.

4. > “This “standard” blocks competition over safety as do most similar ASTM standards.”

I’m not sure I understand which competition is being blocked here. It seems that removing the product category from consumer access without their consent would be the action that blocks competition. Please elaborate.

“PRODUCT SAFETY RECALL – All genuine Zen Magnets and Neoballs have been recalled and are no longer for sale.

Click here or call 1-844-936-6245 to receive a refund.

Click here to view the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notice.”

Read ‘Joint’ Recall Press Release Here

Read Recall Consumer Targeted Letter Here

The above mandatory CPSC staff-approved communications were the most recent draft notices received by Zen, all of which were created by the CPSC without consensus from Zen Magnets. Regarding the “death” that from a “similar product” that CPSC frequently likes mention in the same paragraph as Zen Magnets, while very sad that such an event occurred, it’s important to clarify that:
1. The product involved with the death was not Zen’s product, and not marketed, labeled, packaged, or sold in a manner similar to Zen’s products.
2. The “Child A did not die from SREM use alone. The investigative reports show Child A ingested SREMs while living in an unsafe, unsanitary environment” according to a Judge who reviewed the details. There was “a lack of basic custodial supervision, which very likely could have prevented SREM ingestion in the first instance.” See page 18 of the 2016 ALJ Decision and Order for more details.

This CPSC Mandatory recall is mutually exclusive to the voluntary recall we’ve been offering since 2016, which allowed customers to send magnets back for any reason. To proceed with the CPSC Mandated recall, please fill out the following form:

CPSC Recall Form

FAQ

Questions ordered according to the frequency they are asked.

Q: What can I do to help/support/assist you guys?
A: We’ve read all of your emails, and are overwhelmed by the messages of support. And though Zen Magnets won’t be respawning this time, but continue to believe that the the right for adults to access recreational magnets is worth fighting for. If you agree, we’d direct your attention toward furthering the adoption of ASTM-F3458.
What is ASTM-F3458? Zen was the first to petition the CPSC for safer standards for recreational magnets after the 2016 ban was overturned for not having properly considered alternatives. The spirit of our petition for safer magnet standards lives on in ASTM-F3458, which requires warnings stronger than cigarettes and fireworks combined, plus child resistant packaging. In this case, we think the best strategy for fighting irrational regulation is with reasonable regulation. If you’d like to carry our torch:
1. Secure the standard. Participate in the development of ASTM-F3458, and don’t let it be hijacked. Consumers who care about 5mm magnets are needed. Become an ASTM member for $75 a year, and let Molly <mlynyak@astm.org> know that you’d like to participate as a consumer for the ASTM-F3458 standard.
2. Make it known. Don’t let the “magnets are kids toys” strawman arguments stand, or allow the CPSC or it’s lobbyists to get away with ignoring the existence of reasonable existing standards. Push for the enforcement of ASTM-F3458 as a balance between safety and liberty.

Q: I can use magnets safely because of (numerous valid reasons), can I still buy Zen Magnets from you guys anyways?
A: No. Sorry. Not from us. And not from anyone if you live in the US. If you’re looking for 5mm magnets spec’d similarly to Zen Magnets, we don’t have an answer for you. But you’ll still be able to find magnetic balls from various places on the internet. Try a search on eBay or google for example. If you make a site that lists all of the options, let us know and we’ll link it. And if/when you obtain high powered magnets elsewhere online, remember that they likely won’t be labeled and packaged as safely as our products were. Magnets must be respected, but need not be feared.
We do still sell 2.5mm compliance micromagnets and others things at Neoballs.com. Also, the Zen Magnets brand and business is for sale, so perhaps an entrepreneur in a different country – one that doesn’t ban kinder eggs – will bring it back for non-Americans. Contact us if that’s you..

Q: How do I get a refund/ opt in to the recall?
A: Start by filling out the form linked in the button above.

Q: Where do I send my letter/ how do I reach (CPSC/government) with my thoughts?
A: The CPSC Mailing address can be found here (https://www.cpsc.gov/About-CPSC/Contact-Information), and the emails of their personnel (https://www.cpsc.gov/organization-chart) use a First Letter + Last Name @CPSC.gov email pattern. For example, the CPSC commissioner emails would be: “Dana Baiocco” <dbaiocco@cpsc.gov>, “Peter Feldman” <pfeldman@cpsc.gov>, “Robert Adler” <radler@cpsc.gov>
But the CPSC, along with their primary magnet prohibition allies (Senator Blumenthal, Bryan Rudolph, Todd Frankel), are pretty good at simply ignoring what doesn’t line up with their agenda. Your viewpoints about adult access to magnets will probably make a bigger splash if directed to your own city and state representatives.

If you have questions not answered above, please reach out to contact@zenmagnets.com with “CSPC Recall Question” in the subject and we’ll add it on this page if it’s asked more than 3 times.

Hi Madeleine,

Here I am sitting on the toilet checking my email, and much to my surprise – with matters still unconfirmed – the CPSC says tomorrow morning they’ll be sending out a one-sided recall notice. SURPRISE! Oh CPSC, that’s so CPSC of you. *Cue sitcom laugh track*

To my recollection, I’ve been waiting over a month for y’all to decide whether you wanted a recall, or dissolution/bankruptcy proceedings from Zen by requesting Zen’s compliance outside of it’s financial capabilities. E.g, insisting that we send multi-page first class letters to the tens of thousands who have ever purchased Zen Magnets.

I suppose it’s good that CPSC has decided it would rather have a recall within the capabilities of Zen rather than its dissolution. That’s at least a choice that’s consistent with what the CPSC has said and done in the past.

Unfortunately, the toilet upon which I sit is several states away from my computer, so… no I can’t set up the toll-free number right now, within half a day’s notice. I’ll have the tools and access to modify the site and send notices when I’m back in Colorado in about a week (on the 25th of August). Excuse the delay, though there isn’t really a delay, since we’ve been offering a voluntary recall since 2016 for anyone to return Zen Magnets and Neoballs for any reason. And we haven’t sold 5mm magnets since 2020.

For now, this phone screen typed email response pushed to wordpress will have to cover explaining the slight delay in updates and recall processing.

-Shihan Qu

——–

This text was sent to press seeking comment by email:

Although Zen Magnets LLC has had more success fighting the CPSC than any company in the past decade, in the end the same group of people who decided to sue Zen in the first place (CPSC Commissioners), got to play as the appellant body to decide that they were always right in the first place. Zen Magnets is honored to have been the leading voice of the majority of consumers who believe that adults should be able purchase recreational high powered magnets, in the CPSC’s continual and uncompromising War on Magnets. While the median age of our users was 34 years, we fought hard for the middle ground where recreational magnets could be used, sold, and labeled safely, rather than a nationwide all-ages prohibition that the CPSC seeks of our magnets.

We’ve been offering a voluntary recall since 2016: https://zenmagnets.com/public-releases/march-2016-update-whoa-we-won/, allowing customers to return magnets for a refund for any reason, including if they didn’t feel safe with them, didn’t think they could keep them from being swallowed, or was unable to understand why they are dangerous, or didn’t like the name Zen Magnets. So the only real difference here is a sales prohibition of the specific recreational magnet spheres which carried the loudest warnings, leaving only competitors that are often sold as children’s toys.

The biggest falsehood that the CPSC and their lobbyist & press partners continue to advance is that there was a “ban” from 2012-2016 that led to a drop in injuries. This is 100% false. There was no mandatory standard adopted in 2012 in any manner that could have been construed as a ban. The CPSC’s magnet set ban was effective from 2015 to 2016. It was the CPSC’s enforcement of existing toy safety laws (ASTM-F963) that reduced magnet injuries in 2012. The same type enforcement that the CPSC visibly chose to forgo, coincidentally or not, while Trump was in office.

Zen Magnets was the first company to petition the CPSC for safer standards for recreational magnet sets after their 2016 ban was overturned by a Judge, for not having properly considered alternatives. After much work with other companies, doctors, and human factors experts, the spirit of our petition for safer magnet standards lives in a new standard ASTM F3458 – 21 (https://www.astm.org/Standards/F3458.htm) which requires recreational magnets to have warnings stronger than cigarettes and fireworks combined, and packaging that’s safer that laundry detergent pods and on par with pharmaceuticals.

Though it is likely we may never be able to sell our flagship magnets again, we are hopeful that the millions of fans of 5mm magnet spheres continue fighting for their consumer rights, by:
1. Reminding the regulators in charge that they could easily adopt this new standard – that is excessively safe in comparison with other hazards – and could still allow adults to still access 5mm magnets.
2. And that high powered magnet sets are already banned in kids toys, and they should not be waiting to enforce the children’s toy safety laws until they can also prohibit adults from purchasing recreational magnets.

After the Tenth Circuit ruled that the District Court of Colorado erred in finding Zen’s due process rights had been violated by the CPSC in the administrative adjudication, it paved the way for the CPSC to enforce its Final Decision and Order (FDO) from 2017. The FDO, if it becomes effective, would prevent Zen Magnets from manufacturing for sale, offering for sale, distributing in commerce, or importing into the customs territory of the United States, the Subject Products.

Right now, Zen Magnets and the CPSC have been ordered to provide a joint status report to the District Court no later than December 21, 2020. So, it’s possible that the stop-sale provision of the FDO could take effect before the end of this year, depending on how fast the District Court issues its final order.

]

[Edit 11/2020, after some recent legal updates, Zen Magnets will probably end sooner than expected. Potentially before the end of 2020.]

TL;DR:

1. The Zen Magnets company may have to stop selling recreational magnet spheres as early as February 2021.[Edit 12/8/2020: Dec 21 2020]
2. We’ll be the first magnet sphere company to include child resistant packaging with all of our high powered magnets anyways.

Potential February 2021 Expiration

A paragraph of background for those who are here recently from the Neoballs side of things: The Zen Magnets company is the longest standing magnet sphere company. We’ve been in a marathon legal battle with the US Federal Government for 8 of 11 years of our existence. It’s because Neodymium magnets are dangerous if swallowed and may require surgical removal if they get stuck. Plus, like fireworks and trampolines, children find them appealing, and so they must be banned for adults… oh wait… Cue mental montage of a flurry of motions, orders, flights, depositions, in-court oral skirmishes, and the fiery sacrifice of 400k magnets in steel ovens.

Cut to the present. A recent court order was issued in the CPSC’s (Consumer Product Safety Commission’s) favor in the recall arena. Our lawyer says we have until at least February to keep selling magnets based on the expected timelines. You can see the order here, our response here. The order was written by Judge Bacharach, the same judge who previously rebuked comparisons with latex balloons by claiming that balloons were harmless (seemingly unaware that balloons are the number one cause of child asphyxiation in America).

We may be the world record holder in most wins against the CPSC – largely because we’re not shy about the hazard of magnets and cover our products with more warnings than skateboards, chainsaws and cigarettes combined – but our combat coffers aren’t as bottomless as the taxpayer funded Feds. We’re still fighting, but our odds of continuing sales of magnets in 2021, are less than 50% [Edit 12/8/2020: 0%, we will need to stop sale], unless we pack our magnets into shotgun shells to sell as ammunition.

Child Resistant Packaging

From a broader perspective, the legal battle is only half of the war on magnets. As much as we’re fighting against the government’s seizure of consumer consent, we’re also fighting for magnet safety by leading the struggle against societal perceptions that high powered magnets sold by others are kids toys (they’re not, and shouldn’t be.)

Despite the fact that we sell like a percent of the high powered magnet sets on the market, we were the first to petition the CPSC for rules that required industry-wide child resistant packaging in 2017. We continued those efforts through ASTM with magnetsafety.org, a group we co-founded to promote safe use of recreational magnets.

And so the future of recreational magnets has been sandwiched between a rock and a hard place. From the front, many firms are still selling sets of hazardous magnets without proper labeling, often marketed explicitly to toddlers and children, which has been illegal since 2009 but especially underenforced since 2017. And from the flank, the CPSC and their Advocacy Partners have continually voted against the requirement of child resistant packaging and even reduced existing toy safety enforcement to strengthen the narrative that recreational magnets are toys for children. A strawman erected as if to announce, “We’d rather let there be more injuries than get less than the prohibition we’ve always wanted”

Now, to further parry the impression that recreational magnets are kids toys, Zen Magnets will be the first to have child resistant packaging on all high powered magnet products on par with packaging standards in the pharmaceutical and recreational marijuana industries. Production on new packaging has already started, and there will be a transition over the next few months. We think this is the right thing to do to push magnet safety forward.

Even if our company doesn’t make it out alive.

-Shihan Qu
Founder, Zen Magnets LLC

On 12/20/19, Senator Blumenthal introduced into Congress a clone of the previously repealed magnet ban. Even though there’s always been a “ban” on high powered magnet balls being sold as kids toys, the CPSC has not been enforcing the hazardous magnet restrictions of the ASTM F963 toy safety law since 2016.

Using the untouchable executive power of selective enforcement the CPSC has been allowing a new epidemic of magnet injuries by encouraging sales of hazardous illegal magnets through lack of enforcement, as well as actively hindering the efforts of industry leaders of magnet set safety to develop reasonable regulation, in order to ensure the self fulfilling prophecy that “warnings don’t work”.

#CPSCISGUILTYASHELL

For the rest of the year, we’re discontinuing all sales and promotions, no annual 420 sales or Black Friday sale for 2020, The only coupon code active for zenmagnets.com will be  “THECPSCISGUILTYASHELL” for 1 cent off. To encourage non-enthusiast awareness of what effective labeling looks like for high powered magnet spheres, we’re permanently dropping the price of Zen Magnets as low as we reasonably can, until the new ban forces Zen’s heartbeat flat, or at least through the rest of 2020.

Even if/when we can’t sell magnets, we’ll still resist the disinformation about how it all went down.

Want to help? Stay tuned.

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