A joint action group has been set up between the Malta Standards Authority (MSA), the Chamber of Commerce (COC), the General Retailers and Traders Union (GRTU), the Federation of Industry (FOI) and the Consumer Association (CA) to ascertain that Malta follows the requirements of the Commission Decision of 21 April 2008 requiring Member States to ensure that magnetic toys placed or made available on the market display a warning about the health and safety risks they pose.

Swallowing magnets happens quietly with no signs of physical distress or discomfort for many days. In most cases ingestion of magnets is not observed by care takers and children can often not recall that they have ingested magnets.

The symptoms may include flu-like symptoms: vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach pain. This often results in a considerable delay of referring children to the hospital.

Delay of treatment is sometimes also caused because several magnets attaching across different sides of the intestinal wall are not recognized as separate objects. On X-rays they often can be mistaken for one object and medical staff would first wait for the object to pass the body in a natural way.

According to a study, in 20% of the cases, a correct diagnosis has been made two weeks after symptoms onset.

Medical complications recorded are perforations, ulcerations, bowel necrosis, fistula and obstruction. In most cases perforation of the intestines was observed.

Care takers who are aware that toys used by children include magnets which can be detached from the toy and be swallowed by children, should remove these toys and ensure that children do not come in contact with them.

Producers, distributors, importers and shops selling these toys are required to affix a warning sign on the packaging or otherwise attached to the magnetic toy by virtue of Commission Decision 2008/329/EC of the 21st April 2008, with the following wording:

'Warning! This toy contains magnets or magnetic components. Magnets sticking together or becoming attached to a metallic object inside the human body can cause serious or fatal injury. Seek immediate medical help if magnets are swallowed or inhaled.'

or its Maltese translation reading:

'Avviz! Dan il-gugarell jinkludi kalamiti u komponenti manjetici. Kalamiti mwahhlin flimkien jew li jehlu ma' oggett metalliku fil-gisem uman jistghu jikkawzaw incidenti serji jew fatali. Jekk il-kalamiti jinbelghu jew jittiehdu min-nifs itlob ghajnuna medika minnufih.'

The warning has to appear in a clearly visible and legible manner, conspicuously displayed on the packaging or otherwise attached to the magnetic toy in such a way as to be visible to the consumer at the point of purchase.

This warning shall be affixed as above to all magnetic toys as of 21st July 2008 until further notice.

Magnetic toys which do not display the required warning are prohibited from being placed or made available on the market. Any toys which do not display the required warning after 21st July 2008 will be removed from the market and legal action may be pursued by the Market Surveillance Directorate by virtue of the Product Safety Act.

Any person who requires further information or has any queries on this issue may contact the Malta Standards Authority (tel: 21242420 or email: helpdesk.msa@msa.org.mt ). For further information as regards the Commission's Decision kindly refer to http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:114:0090:0093:EN:PDF