How dangerous is a spinner. Are spinners harmful? The deadly danger of spinner toys

Every year, new mega-popular children's toys appear on the market. The hit of 2017 was anti-stress spinner toys. These little turntables conquered not only children, but also adults. However, every day more and more information appears on the Web that spinners can be dangerous, especially for children. We decided to learn more about this toy - here are 3 depressing facts that will make you refuse to buy a spinner.

At first glance, the spinner looks quite harmless - it is a small symmetrical object, in the middle of which a bearing is placed. It is due to him that the toy spins. The creation of a spinner was planned for autistic children and children with attention deficit disorder However, it has become popular all over the world. Children and adults forget about their worries, mindlessly scrolling the bearing in their hands. It seems to be nothing dangerous, but then why are more and more scientists and experts saying that children should not buy this toy? Let's figure it out.

Reason #1. Spinner distracts children from studying

Oddly enough, the subject, which is supposed to soothe children with certain diseases, healthy children distracts from everyday tasks. As noted by one of the American scientists, Dr. Louis Kraus, there have been no special studies that the spinner increases concentration in ordinary children. This means that everything that manufacturers promise us is unconfirmed, and possibly erroneous data.

Teachers around the world have sounded the alarm, saying spinners are interfering with children's learning.. Instead of being interested in new information, children begin to compete with each other in performing various tricks - they twist a toy on the tip of their nose, on their forehead, on their finger. Naturally, this competitive moment distracts them from the main task - study. Schools in the United States are gradually beginning to ban the use of spinners to class, as they interfere with children's concentration. Also, the level of conflicts between students has increased - they often argue about whose gadget and whose tricks are cooler.

Reason number 2. Spinner can hurt your child

On the net, you can read about cases when children were injured by a spinner while trying to do intricate tricks. For example, an Australian boy at the age of 11 almost lost his eye while trying a newly invented maneuver - he did not catch the spinner, and when it fell, it injured him.

There was also a case where the little girl was able (!) to disassemble the toy herself and swallowed a metal bearing. Small parts of a disassembled toy are very dangerous in the hands of babies - if a particle enters the respiratory tract, it can be fatal. Therefore, experts are quick to point out that children under 8 years old should not be given a spinner. Curiosity and thoughtless actions of kids can lead to tragic consequences.

Reason number 3. Many spinners contain hazardous substances

Due to the great popularity, the toy has a lot of low-quality analogues from China. If a plastic toy smells bad, chances are it contains the dangerous chemical phenol, which is especially harmful to children. Also, after some research, it was found that the plastic parts of the spinner may contain lead and mercury that are dangerous for children. Therefore, the task of parents to be careful when buying this toy. It is necessary to check the label, composition, country of origin and the certificate number confirming its safety and permission to be sold in the category of goods for children.

After the advent of smartphones with unlimited possibilities of communication and Internet surfing, the dependence on gadgets began to seem invincible. But only until spinners appeared.

These cult toys have managed to win the attention of not only children who are greedy for novelties. Adults are happy to purchase spinning gizmos that relieve stress and come up with all sorts of tricks with their participation. At the same time, doctors are sounding the alarm - they believe that spinners can cause irreparable harm to health!

What is a spinner?

The full name of the spinner sounds nothing more than a fidget spinner, which in translation into Russian means "a toy for a fidget." It was invented by US resident Katherine Hettiger, whose daughter suffers from a rare form of muscle fatigue. To alleviate the suffering of the girl, the mother created a mini-simulator that works on the principle of a gyroscope. Katherine rightly reasoned that children are constantly fiddling with something in their hands, which is why her daughter needs such a toy. It is not difficult to put the spinner into action: holding the core of the toy with a bearing with two fingers, you need to unwind its outer part. Thanks to the balanced device, the spinner rotates for at least two minutes.

A toy created by Catherine helped her daughter cope with the manifestations of the disease. The girl's friends saw her unusual handmade toy and wanted the same ones for themselves. So the spinner began to take over America, and later the news of the new entertainment reached Europe. Today, 17 out of 20 toys purchased on Amazon and Ebay auctions are all kinds of spinners.

Is a spinner really useful?

The success of spinners was unexpected not only for Katherine herself: it seemed to the world-famous toy manufacturers that modern children were interested in high-tech novelties. Perhaps this is the secret of the popularity of the spinner: its simple device does not require significant expenditure of mental energy. The start of the deafening popularity of the toy was given by Forbes journalists: in an interview with them, Wall Street brokers said that they consider having a spinner in the office as a way to achieve success.

Psychologists, unable to recognize the signs of an impending "spinner fever" came out in support of the toy. The best glossy magazines in the US and Europe simultaneously published articles about its effect on the human body. Purely positive characteristics were given: getting rid of panic attacks and feelings of anxiety, increasing concentration and developing fine motor skills of the hands. Fidget spinners have been officially recognized as a means to combat bad habits like smoking, nail biting or finger snapping. They began to be recommended to children with hyperactivity and perception problems as a way to control emotions. There are even rave reviews on the Internet that some people have overcome their fear of flying with the help of spinners.

The deadly danger of spinner toys

Very soon, doctors had to regret the laudatory reviews addressed to spinners. Schoolchildren and adults stopped working and studying, but they spent all their free time with a spinning toy. From a developmental gadget, it turned into a "time killer" that could be spent with benefit - for example, playing sports or compiling an annual report.

Teachers in US schools have noticed that students react aggressively to an attempt to select spinners at least during the lessons. Some of them attacked teachers because of them, threatened them with murder and assault - this was how dependence on the toy manifested itself. Teachers are seeking to ban the use of spinners at the school level at the legislative level: already in 40% of the states, anyone who brought it with them to lessons faces immediate expulsion.

But conflicts with teachers and disobedience in the classroom can be considered the most insignificant consequences of using a toy. Since children are still considered its main consumers, the spinner device itself is already dangerous for them: small parts from it can get into the respiratory tract or nasopharynx, and the top itself easily slips out of the fingers and damages the skin or mucous membrane of the eye with pointed edges. The human brain is designed in such a way that it is not able to constantly concentrate on one subject: sooner or later, attention will decrease - and then the spinner turns into a dangerous weapon.

What ended the accidents caused by the spinner?

Spinner tricks don't always end in minor injuries. They can cause serious health problems, which will not be easy to get rid of. Kelly Joek from Texas told reporters a few weeks ago how her daughter almost said goodbye to life because of a spinner bought by her mother. A 10-year-old girl named Britton relieved stress after attending intensive swimming classes. On that ill-fated day, she was driving from training in the back seat of her mother's car. Kelly heard strangled gasping sounds and turned around: her daughter couldn't speak but was pointing her finger at her throat.

Fortunately, the woman managed to take the child to the hospital, where doctors removed a part from a turntable the size of a small coin. Britton will have a long period of rehabilitation and it is not yet known whether her speech function will be restored.

Spinnermania also reached Cyprus, where Haara Antoniou, a resident of Limassol, published a post on a social network about how her daughter became disabled due to playing with a spinner. The girl wanted to record a video with tricks to put it on the Internet. She lay down on the bed and began to spin the spinner, from which the part separated and fell right into her mouth. Instinctively, the child made a swallowing movement and a piece of plastic fell into the stomach. It is located next to large blood vessels, so it is impossible to pull it out. Doctors monitor the condition of the girl every day: they are not sure that they will ever be able to rid her of a foreign body.

Increasingly, negative reviews about spinners appear on the Internet, provoking allergy and asthma attacks in children. Scientists were able to find an explanation for this: all spinners contain lead compounds that have a toxic effect on the human body. It turns out that people themselves are happy to acquire a "top", slowly but surely destroying their health.

In March of this year, spinners first appeared on store shelves, and a month later they were already the best-selling product of 2017 in the United States. After a couple of weeks, the entire imported batch of fashionable toys was bought up throughout the country.

What is a spinner?

This is a very unpretentious device. In the middle is a plastic or iron wheel that you need to hold with your index and thumb. A triangular disk rotates around it.

Why are they so popular, you ask? According to surveys of well-known publications, in the first place, the parents of American teenagers were attracted by the supposedly anti-stress properties of the spinner.

In our country, spinners are just gaining such wild popularity. But there are already known accidents that occurred in children while playing with this toy.

In this article, we will talk about five reasons why you still should not rush to buy such a fashionable entertainment for your child.

Reason #1. The spinner does not concentrate attention, but, on the contrary, interferes with concentration

Initially, the spinner was conceived as a toy that would help children with autism and attention deficit disorder to concentrate more on specific goals.

But it turned out that this subject does not calm children with disabilities, and it prevents healthy children from concentrating. Also, in the course of a study conducted by American scientists, it was found that the spinner does not increase concentration in ordinary children. Therefore, manufacturers' statements about the impact of spinners on the brain are nothing more than a publicity stunt.

Reason number 2. Spinners distract children from lessons

Teachers around the world immediately noticed that spinners distract students from their classes. Instead of being interested in the lessons, the students organize competitions among themselves - who can spin the spinner on the nose and on the finger longer.

Therefore, in American schools, they immediately banned coming to class with toys, as they prevent children from perceiving new material, and teachers, in turn, from teaching.

The teachers also noted that the spinners during rotation make an annoying sound that distracts attention.

Reason number 3. Spinner can carry the harm of suffocation

A couple of months ago, a horror story circulated on the Web about a 10-year-old schoolgirl who accidentally swallowed a small bearing from a spinner. The part got stuck in the child's throat.

As a result, the girl underwent a small operation so that she could breathe normally. There is also a case when the boy himself untwisted the toy and swallowed a small detail.

Spinners are very dangerous for preschoolers - if a small part gets into the respiratory organs, this can lead to sad consequences up to the death of the child. Therefore, doctors remind that children under 7 years old are not allowed to play with a spinner.

Reason number 4. Spinner can cause injury to the child

It is not uncommon for children to get injured while trying to perform difficult throws with a spinner.
You don't have to go far. In our country, the first serious incident occurred in the Rostov region. A teenager playing with a spinner twirled and tossed it into the air.

At some point, a metal pinwheel simply flew into the child's eye. Relatives in a panic called the doctors. Later, the boy had to remove the damaged lens.

As you can see, the spinner is not harmless even for older children. And small children can get really hurt.

Reason number 5. Some spinners contain hazardous substances

Due to the huge demand for toys, low-quality fakes began to be imported from China. Their peculiarity is an unpleasant plastic smell, indicating that it contains phenol, a substance especially dangerous for children.

Also, examinations have shown that the plastic parts of the spinner sometimes contain high levels of other toxic metals, lead and mercury.

Therefore, when buying a spinner for your child, carefully read the label, composition and check for permission to sell in the category of children's goods.

As you can see, the spinner is not as safe as it seems at first glance. Acquiring such a toy for a child or refusing is the choice of parents.

Office workers have a new all-consuming love. A spinner, or - as the fans themselves call it with a glint in the gases and aspiration - a spinner. Thousands and thousands of these simple toys are sold every day in the world. Some of their owners often do not even imagine themselves without a spinner, and even leaving the house without it seems simply unthinkable.

ON THIS TOPIC

Fidget Spinner, as fans call it, is just a symmetrical object with a bearing in the center. The same as in scooters or roller skates. However, neither scooters nor roller skates became the subject of a cult. But the spinner - could.

"Get ready for a short session of hypnosis. A simple toy: inside the bearing, around which the petals rotate. That's all. This simplicity is the genius of the spinner. Now, they say, you can look forever not only at fire and water, but also at how it spins spinner," journalist Oleg Baryshev rightly noted.

It is believed that the author of the invention is an American Katherine Hettinger. Once, from what was at hand, she built a simple fun for her daughter. Soon, friends asked to make the same toy for them. And one day the spinner gained worldwide popularity, suddenly becoming a cult item. According to fans, this toy develops fine motor skills, increases concentration, helps to concentrate. Well, finally, it's just beautiful. However, it was soon noticed that the spinner causes a real addiction, akin to a drug one. In American schools, fun has already been banned. They considered that dependence on the gadget causes low academic performance.

The demand for spinners is several times higher than the supply. Handicraftsmen take advantage of this, stamping a toy in the basements and using not the most environmentally friendly dyes to color the turntables. Thus, European customs officers seized 200,000 spinners containing heavy metals - mercury and lead. Of course, it’s hard to figure out which batch was made at the factory, and which in the basement. But this is another "dark" side of the hobby that has swept the world.

spinner is new antistress toy, which flooded offices, classrooms, university classrooms and public transport. The general craze for unusual fun is comparable to the once forgotten Tamagotchi, Tetris and yo-yo. Children and teenagers are spinning the spinner with the same enthusiasm as they were catching Pokémon a few months ago.

Like any newfangled thing, this gadget has many opponents who claim that it is not only useless, but also dangerous. Editorial "So simple!" figured out why the spinner got into the rank harmful toys.

What is a spinner for?

A spinner, or, in the original, a Fidget Spinner, is a small symmetrical object with a bearing in the center. One press on the bearing sets the toy in action and it begins to rotate around its axis.

Is spinner good for kids

Research has shown that repetitive activities help children with attention deficit disorder to concentrate. You can click with a pen, draw in the margins, or you can twist the spinner - the effect is about the same.

What's unusual

If we consider the design itself, then this is a piece of plastic or metal with a bearing in the center. Its main advantage is its compactness. Therefore, such a toy can be taken anywhere: school, travel, office.

Parents sound the alarm

The popularity of the spinner is starting to work against the gadget. The main opponents of the toy were teachers. They claim that students are so engrossed in spinning, flipping, and doing tricks that they can't focus on their lessons.

Moreover, these gadgets can be deadly for children. This was told by Kelly Joek from Texas, whose daughter almost died after accidentally swallowing a small part from a spinner. It was possible to extract it only with the help of an operation. The woman spoke about this on her page on social networks to warn parents.

Experts say that spinners are not suitable for children under 8 years old. And if the parents still decide to give the child a turntable, then they should be careful. Indeed, due to children's curiosity and carelessness, even innocent fun can turn into an injury.