CPSC magnet safety standard part 1262.

Who the rule is for

Section 1262.1(a) says the part "prescribes the safety requirements for a subject magnet product" and is "intended to reduce or eliminate an unreasonable risk of death or injury to consumers who ingest one or more hazardous magnets." Application is in paragraph (b): "all subject magnet products that are manufactured after October 21, 2022, are subject to the requirements of this part." The only listed exemption (c) is "Toys that are subject to 16 CFR part 1250."

The two definitions that matter

A hazardous magnet is "a magnet that fits entirely within the cylinder described in 16 CFR 1501.4 and that has a flux index of 50 kG² mm² or more when tested in accordance with the method described in 1262.4." The cylinder in 1501.4 is the small parts test cylinder, so the first half of the definition is a size test: a magnet too big to fit the cylinder is not a hazardous magnet however strong it is. The second half is strength, measured as flux index.

A subject magnet product is "a consumer product that is designed, marketed, or intended to be used for entertainment, jewelry (including children’s jewelry), mental stimulation, stress relief, or a combination of these purposes, and that contains one or more loose or separable magnets, but does not include products sold and/or distributed solely to school educators, researchers, professionals, and/or commercial or industrial users exclusively for educational, research, professional, commercial, and/or industrial purposes." The second exclusion is conditional on both the audience (solely) and the purpose (exclusively).

The requirement

Section 1262.3 has one sentence: "Each loose or separable magnet in a subject magnet product that fits entirely within the cylinder described in 16 CFR 1501.4 must have a flux index of less than 50 kG² mm² when tested in accordance with the method described in 1262.4." A magnet exactly at 50 is not under 50, and fails; the definition of a hazardous magnet uses "50 or more." The rule applies to each loose or separable magnet, not to the product average, and not to magnets that are permanently built in and cannot be separated (the text speaks only of "loose or separable magnets").

How flux index is measured

Section 1262.4 gives the sampling and method. Select "at least one loose or separable magnet of each shape and size in the subject magnet product." Then measure the flux index of each selected magnet in accordance with the procedure in sections 8.25.1 through 8.25.3 of ASTM F963-17, the toy safety standard, approved May 1, 2017. The CFR incorporates that procedure by reference, so the method itself is not reproduced in part 1262. A product with three magnet sizes needs three measurements, one for each shape and size.

Why the Commission wrote it

The findings in 1262.5 state the scale of the problem. They estimate 26,600 magnet ingestions treated in hospital emergency departments from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2021, with about 5,000 involving identified in-scope subject magnet products and an additional estimated 20,000 involving unidentified magnet products likely to involve subject products. They list injuries from magnets attracting each other through internal tissue, "pressure necrosis, volvulus, bowel obstruction, bleeding, fistulae, ischemia, inflammation, perforation, peritonitis, sepsis, ileus, ulceration, aspiration, and death, among others," and five fatal incidents between November 24, 2005 and January 5, 2021, four of them involving children 2 years old or younger.

The findings also record the history. A 2014 rule for magnet sets took effect in April 2015 and "remained in effect until it was vacated and remanded by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Court in November 2016" in Zen Magnets, LLC v. Consumer Prod. Safety Comm’n., 841 F.3d 1141 (10th Cir. 2016). They estimate about 500,000 subject magnet products sold annually and note retail prices generally average under $20. The Commission considered alternatives, including warnings, special packaging, aversive coatings and a later effective date, and found none likely to reduce injuries adequately.

What a compliant product can look like

The findings say the rule "does not restrict the design of products." Compliant products might use "non-separable magnets, larger magnets, weaker magnets, or non-permanent magnets." Products sold only to educators, researchers or professional and industrial users for those purposes remain outside the rule, "and firms may continue to manufacture, sell, and distribute such magnet products."

Worked example

A desk toy sold as a stress reliever contains 216 loose spherical magnets, each small enough to fit the cylinder. The lab measures a flux index of 120 kG² mm² on a sample of the one size in the set. That is 50 or more, so each of those is a hazardous magnet and the product does not meet 1262.3. If a redesigned set uses magnets with a measured flux index of 42, each meets the limit. If the same magnets are sold in a laboratory supply catalog solely to researchers for research, the product is outside the "subject magnet product" definition. If it is a toy under part 1250, the toy standard applies instead.

Limits of this page

The checker applies the definitions and the 50 kG² mm² line to the answers you give. It cannot measure flux index, decide whether a magnet fits the 1501.4 cylinder (you tell it), or decide whether a product is "designed, marketed, or intended" for the listed purposes. The Commission’s own findings are quoted for context and are not a statement of how it would treat a particular product. Labeling, certification and testing duties arise under other regulations.

Sources

Sources opened and read November 2, 2026.

• eCFR: 16 CFR part 1262, safety standard for magnets (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)