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Are Magnets Harmful?

If you swallow a magnet, there is a 2 percent chance that you could go to the emergency room, according to WebMD. Most of the time, magnets are not harmful. In fact, they are sometimes used in medical care.

  1. Identification

    • Swallowing a magnet or any other hard object potentially blocks your intestinal tract, according to WebMD. In 10 to 20 percent of cases where someone swallows a magnet, a doctor must remove it.

    Misconception

    • Magnets are neither harmful nor dangerous to most people. Alternative medicine often promotes magnets as a form of pain relief, but as of 2010, no studies prove any definitive medicinal benefit of small magnets, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).

    Warning

    • Magnets are potentially dangerous when applied to the skin of people who use a pacemakers or defibrillators, according to the NCCAM.

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