WASHINGTON - WHILE Chinese manufacturers are in the direct line of fire over recent toy recalls, toy designers are taking some of the flak.
Most of Mattel's Tuesday recall of 18 million toys involved small, powerful magnets that are potentially fatal if ingested.

More than 15 million toys, including Mattel Polly Pocket dolls and Mega Brands' popular Magnetix, have been recalled in the United States since last year because they contain such magnets.

Swallowed magnets have led to the death of at least one child and dozens of serious injuries.

These magnets can be 20 times more powerful than the average refrigerator magnet. As they have become cheaper, the magnets have become more common in toys because they can make Barbie's dog chase after her, for example, or make Polly Pocket's clothes easier to put on and take off.

The magnets, made of chemically similar magnetic elements known as rare earth, may cause little harm and can pass through the digestive system if a child swallows one.

But if a child swallows more than one magnet, they can attract one another through intestinal walls, causing blockages or ripping gashes in soft tissue.

In the only known fatal case, in 2005, 20-month-old Kenny Sweet of Washington state ingested magnets from a Magnetix set left behind by an older sibling, according to Dr Alan Oestreich, a paediatric radiologist from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

'By the time he got to the hospital, the infection from the holes in the bowel was so great that he could not be saved,' Dr Oestreich said.

Older magnets were bigger and harder to swallow. They also were not powerful enough to cause serious damage.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is pushing the toy industry to adopt more stringent standards for toys that contain the magnets.

Illinois Attorney-General Lisa Madigan said even toys that companies regard as safe can be dangerous.

'The way kids play with things isn't always how the toy companies would like to think kids play with things,' she said. 'They put them in their mouth, they throw them, they step on them. And in the course of that conduct, the magnets fall out.'

The US toy industry passed a voluntary standard in May that required all toys with the magnets to have clear warning labels, as well as to be tested so that the magnets did not fall out under normal use.

Dr Oestreich said that since 2004, his hospital had seen seven patients who swallowed magnets. He knew of more than 100 cases worldwide of children who swallowed magnets. Most of them were from the US.

In one of the seven cases at the Cincinnati hospital, the magnet passed through the body without causing damage. But in five cases, major abdominal surgery was necessary, Dr Oestreich said. All seven patients have recovered.