Tech Product: Boon or Curse

Button Cell Batteries The small coin sized button cell batteries commonly used in remote controls, garage door openers, key fobs, light up shoes, flashing jewelry, digital ear thermometers and bathroom scales are surprisingly dangerous. As it is a tendency for infants and children to put things in their mouth, most of this happens with children of small age group between 6 months and 3 years. The batteries can get stuck in children's throats where they can cause severe chemical burns. The effect starts within minutes of ingesting the battery. Even a dead battery still has enough of a residual charge to cause the same sort of burn. In India, case of a 3 year old girl with severe mid esophageal burns due to a lodged battery in February 2005 deals with this issue. The frequency of ingested button batteries is estimated to be about 10 per million populations per year and 1 in every 1000 battery ingestions cause serious injuries. With increasing accessibility of electronic toys and devices to children, ingestion of these miniature sized batteries is on the rise. Cells contain heavy metal like mercury, silver, lithium and a strong hydroxide of sodium or potassium that can lead to mucosal damage by ulceration which may further lead on to perforation and secondary stricture formation. The hazards of button battery ingestion should be publicized and prevention encouraged by parental education, manufacturers packing and safe disposal of used batteries. In the U.S. context it differs, according to the National Capital Poison Center since 1985 more than 60,000 people swallowed miniature disc or 'button' batteries, resulting in more than 3,500 injuries and nine deaths, most of them children under 6 years old. So it is better to avoid a "dead" button battery within a child's reach when putting a new battery in a device.