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At Banana Moon we are always looking out for current issues and campaigns that relate to child safety. The Child Accident Prevention Trust have launched a new national safety campaign highlighting the dangers of button batteries. Found in everyday items, such as remote controls and car keys, button batteries can badly injure or kill a child if they are swallowed. Help to prevent more ‘devastating deaths’ from button batteries and #BeBatteryAware by reading the tips below.

‘Everyday’ items

Look around any family home and you’ll see a proliferation of products and gadgets powered by button batteries, particularly 3V lithium coin cell batteries like the CR2025, CR2032 and CR2330. For example, thermometers, fitness trackers, 3D glasses, gaming headsets, remote controls, bathroom scales, car keys, flameless candles, robot bug toys, light-up fidget spinners and musical greeting cards all use coin cell batteries. The list is endless!

And while there are safety regulations for children’s toys, ensuring that lithium coin cell batteries are secured in battery compartments and can’t be accessed by small children, there are no equivalent safety regulations for other products in our homes.

What’s the problem?

Children aged between 1 and 4 are at the greatest risk as they often put things they find in their mouths.

When a button battery, particularly a powerful 3V lithium coin cell battery, gets stuck in a small child’s food pipe, it can burn a hole and cause serious internal bleeding and death. This is because the battery creates a chemical reaction that erodes soft tissue. If it burns through a main artery, a child can haemorrhage to death. The reaction can happen in as little as two hours, and symptoms are often not obvious until it’s too late. In this film, George Asan talks about his daughter Francesca, who died after swallowing a spare button battery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI794iCPZGc&mc_cid=dbc25e8eab&mc_eid=8c781be357&fbclid=IwAR3zDxhOZJfpxR_tMxYfMZR7Oq6Wj2KvC_WrgCIB5rrrLwr1o6rFSQ3JZCM

How can you help keep children safe?

  • Look round your home for lithium coin cell batteries – in products as well as spare and ‘flat’ batteries.
  • Keep all spare batteries in a sealed container in a high cupboard.
  • Keep products well out of children’s reach if the battery compartment isn’t secured.
  • Put ‘flat’ or ‘dead’ batteries out of children’s reach straight away and recycle them safely and as quickly as possible.
  • Avoid toys from markets, discount stores or temporary shops as they may not conform to safety regulations, and take care when buying online or from overseas.
  • Teach older children that button batteries are dangerous and not to play with them or give them to younger brothers and sisters.

Read more about the national button battery campaign here:

https://www.capt.org.uk/News/recommendations-on-button-batteries?mc_cid=dbc25e8eab&mc_eid=8c781be357&fbclid=IwAR30Edef-KxqgrxyErE_UVFfs6GN6svghl9xF5BZOGk95U4E9ncL8DYy5xM

Spread the word on social media using the hashtag: #BeBatteryAware

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