In a 1.5 Tesla magnet a hairpin can take on speeds of 40 mph.

There have been several MRI accidents, some of them fatal, involving metal objects as small as paper clips. One woman who underwent an MRI died because of an implanted aneurysm clip in her brain. Another who forgot to pull a hairpin out of her hair required a procedure to extract the hairpin after the pin traveled up her nose and lodged in her pharynx.

Two steel tines (parts of a fork lift) weighing 80 pounds each were accelerated by the magnet striking a technician and knocking him over 15 feet resulting in serious injury.

52% of MRI facilities reported accidents in 2001.

Dr. Kanal said he had personally heard of accidents "dozens of times a year," often from lawyers, and said the F.D.A.'s database is "not even the tip of the iceberg". In almost every case, he said, the problem was what he called "pilot error" - personnel who let ferromagnetic objects into the room or failed to detect them in scanned patients.

Most health care workers are unaware of the danger to themselves or to a patient from even a single unauthorized or unsupervised contact with a MR Field. Furthermore, most health care workers are unaware that the MR field is constantly on, which poses significant after hours risk if MR safety is not strictly followed.