Toy Contest

The U.S.  Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is an independent federal regulatory agency that was created in 1972 by Congress in the Consumer Product Safety Act. In that law, Congress directed the Commission to "protect the public against unreasonable risks of injuries and deaths associated with consumer products."

Generally speaking, the CPSC is a government agency intended to make sure that all products that are created or imported in the United States meet intended safety regulations. Today the products they inspect are mostly toys, and every new toy that gets on the shelves, at least the ones that they can find anyway, must go through a series of tests to make sure that every toy has absolutely no harmful features about it. All products must be sure to have no harmful chemicals, like lead, or features that could cause any serious injury to the consumer.

Buckyballs are a great example of what the CPSC can do. Buckyballs were a major hit in 2009 through 2013, they were intended to be used as stress relievers, intended for adults, but were not at all used in that way. The main consumer of the Buckyballs were teenagers and children, because they were fun and could be shaped into almost any formation or small object they wanted. However, the magnets were both extremely powerful and extremely small, making them a very dangerous swallowing hazard. Children and teens began to be rushed to the hospital because they had swallowed at least one ball, the magnets were intensely more dangerous when it was discovered that the magnets could stick to each other in the organs and rip right through them, causing wounds as bad as gun shots.

Therefore, the CPSC was forced to take action to prevent Buckyballs from being produced anymore, which at that time were causing almost two american hospitalizations per day. Their recall was immediately rejected for two reasons, one the american population that could use them responsibly loved the magnets, and two, the company that manufactured them, Maxfield & Oberton, would go out of business if their most popular product was suddenly off the shelves. This didn’t stop the CPSC, however, they began to go from store to store and forcing recalls on the dangerous magnets. Buckyballs were eventually outlawed and accidents with them became very few. It is now illegal to sell or create Buckyballs in America.