I doubt very much that rare-earth magnets, like the neodymium-iron-boron ones mentioned in the article, are used for fridge magnets. I have used these things, and played around with them too. If you stuck one on your fridge, it would be very hard to get it off (I've done that on filing cabinets). But they have been used for many years in other applications, like speakers, so this is really nothing new.

I have heard for years that intense electro-magnetic fields can interfer with pacemakers.

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