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Magnets popular with youth pose big risk if swallowed

By Lena H. Sun

 |  Washington Post  

  January 29, 2012

Meredith DelPrete, age 10, was playing at school one day and did something that she said is popular among kids her age: pretending to have a pierced tongue. The Fairfax County, Va., fifth-grader took two tiny magnetic balls out of her pocket and placed one on top of her tongue and the other on the underside. The magnets, the size of a BB, are extremely powerful. They made it look like she had a tongue stud. She opened her mouth to show a friend. That’s when the tiny silver orbs rolled off.

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