Often, toy fads come with hidden dangers. Nerf guns can cause eye and face injuries, inflatable toys can present potential drowning risks, DIY slime can be poisonous, and hundreds of popular toys each year have small parts which can be a choking hazard. Fidget spinners are no exception.

Fidget spinners are small, palm-sized gadgets that have prongs and circular bearings that will spin between on a person's fingers. The bearings in the center allow them to spin, and the bearing can be brass, steel, ceramic, titanium or other materials. The spinners themselves are made of various materials. Many look similar to a three-blade mini propeller or the triple heads on an electric shaver, but some have only two blades while others have four, five or more blades, or are completely circular. They're called fidget spinners because they can spin and the action supposedly helps keep a child (or you) from fidgeting. Just about everyone fidgets – like cracking your knuckles, biting your nails, playing with pencils or pens, doodling or other habit forming actions. In fact, some of us would likely agree that fidgeting takes our minds to a relaxing level of contemplation and helps our cognitive thinking and creativity. Some businesses have even supplied their employees with those handy little squeeze balls in an effort to relieve stress and boost creativity. One website advertises them for “relaxation, stress relief, staying focused”, and can even be used as a 'warm-up” device for musicians and writers.

Fidget spinners were initially marketed as a tool to help children with ADHD, autism or anxiety to improve their focus by relieving the need to fidget, but as with any new or redesigned gadget they soon became popular with the masses, young and old alike. They are now all the craze and flying off of toy shelves and mall kiosks. They can be found in just about any color, in character, camo or other trends, can glow in the dark or have blinking LED lights, and can currently be found for well under $10 or as high as $30.  

These toys have not been confirmed as to their effectiveness to help children improve their focus, even though some people claim that they have helped their child to focus or that they provide a relaxing way to keep from fidgeting. But, to date there have been no controlled studies to conclusively link fidgeting with less anxiety or increased concentration; and there is no concrete scientific evidence that these toys help in the ways they were originally marketed for children with ADHD, autism or anxiety. They are not approved by the FDA so they are not regulated in their safety, product design or composition. Some brands do contain age restrictions and choking hazard warnings, but not all of them. And there are certainly no warnings of the dangers of their misuse.

So what's the problem? They're trendy, bright, colorful and fun, all good things to entice children and even some adults who like to play with gadgets or are looking for a calming way to relieve stress. But, they can prove to be hazardous and even deadly, particularly to children, when taken apart, broken or used in a manner that is not intended. They are comprised of small parts that have been known to fall off and cause choking hazards when swallowed. Many have what seem to be weights at the ends of the blades, and these weights are about the size of a penny. This makes them readily swallowable in the hands of younger children. One child had to have surgery to remove the part she had swallowed, and another child got the weight stuck on his finger and had to have the spinner part cut off in an emergency room. When spinning, some of them are designed with edges that are sharp enough to even cut through flesh. An actress in London has posted on Instagram that she was forced to drop out of a play because a fidget spinner went awry in a shop, struck her behind the ear, causing a concussion requiring up to two weeks of bed rest. A Michigan woman claimed her fidget spinner caught fire while charging a Bluetooth gadget allowing the spinner to connect to smartphones to play music. She claimed that she hooked the spinner to a baby monitor charger because it had no charging instructions.

Because of these and other incidents, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is investigating the spinners. The Good Housekeeping Institute tested various spinners and determined that they are not suitable for children under three years old. The CPSC states that any toy marketed for use by children must be labeled if it poses a choking hazard. Currently, many spinners are not so labeled.

Naturally, when a product is defective or causes injury, insurance can be brought into the claim. Product liability and negligence issues can arise. While some product liability is covered by the CGL policy under products-completed operations liability, businesses that manufacture, distribute or sell potentially hazardous products are better served by the coverages of a specific Products Liability policy to cover the legal liability for the quality of their products. For example, the ISO CGL does not provide coverage for manufacturing defects, or for products recall. Product liability insurance provides coverage for an insured's liability for bodily injury or property damage from a third party due to a defect or malfunction of a product, and pays for the insured's legal fees and any damages awarded because of the faulty product, as well as reimbursement for any products that need to be recalled.

Regardless of the type of injury, the actual legal basis for a product liability claim will be negligence of the designer or manufacturer of the toy. Four main elements would need to be proven in the claim:

·The toy was defective;

·The defective toy was caused by negligence of the designer or manufacturer;

·The injury was a direct result of the negligence in design or manufacture of the toy;

·The injuries were compensable damage.

A toy manufacturer is required by law to exercise reasonable care in its design and manufacture, so that the toy does not cause undue harm. It would be unreasonable for a manufacturer to absolutely cover any and all ways a child could be injured by the toy (such as in their misuse). An exception to this would be where the design or manufacture of a toy is clearly hazardous because of its obvious dangerous design, manufacturing flaw or inadequate warnings. In this case, the manufacturer would be subject to strict liability and the courts would not require that the claim prove negligence, but rather only that the injuries were compensable (as in the case of miniature cars painted with lead based paint which resulted in lead poisoning to a child).  

In the case of children's products, product liability claims can be made against the manufacturer, supplier, distributor or retailer/seller. Because the seller could be held liable should the manufacturer go out of business or not be identified or other, they must do everything reasonably possible to ensure that the toys they sell are safe for children. This is especially true when the products are made in different countries, as the seller needs to be responsible for offering toys that meet the industry's quality and safety standards.

The fidget spinners on the market today are a trend that will likely fade in popularity over time, such as the Yo-Yo and Rubik's cube. Until that time, the industry could very well see claims arising from the hazards of choking and misuse of these popular toys.