The adult fashion for body piercing seems to have had a strange spin-off in children. Over a period of 51 days (13 April to 3 June 2000) 24 children aged 5–15 years attended Sheffield Children's Hospital because of problems related to the body application of small magnets (S McCormick and colleagues Emergency Medicine Journal2002;19:51–3).

These magnets are neodymium magnets, made from a mixture of iron, boron, and neodymium, and they are said to be …