Button batteries can badly hurt or even kill a small child, if they are swallowed and get stuck in the food pipe. Energy from the battery reacts with saliva to create caustic soda; the same chemical used to unblock drains. It can burn through tissue and cause catastrophic bleeding in as little as two hours.
We’re driving forward a national programme of work on button battery safety. Our active participation in the steering group for the button battery safety standard (PAS 7055:2025) reflects our support for tighter measures to ensure the protection of children from button battery ingestion.
Button battery safety standard
The standard was commissioned by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), the government agency regulating most UK consumer products. It has been developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) with input from an expert steering group.
The draft standard is now out for public consultation and we’re keen to encourage concerned individuals and organisations to submit their feedback.
What does the safety standard cover?
Topics covered include:
- Child-resistant packaging for button batteries plus warnings on the packagin
- Warning signs on button batteries
- Secure battery compartments for products powered by button batteries
- Spare or loose batteries supplied with the product
- Instructions or manuals for the product
- Warning signs on products powered by button batteries
- Point-of-sale advice for consumers online and in-store
- Safe disposal of button batteries.
- The marking on packaging for batteries has been amended to apply to all sizes of button and coin batteries, creating a more consistent warning message.
- Removal of copyright on Child Accident Prevention education posters so that they are made widely available.
- Addition of five top tips for consumers on button battery safety as stewarded by the Child Accident Prevention Trust.
Please comment
Simply go to the BSI website, register for an account, then log in to download a copy of the draft standard and submit your comments on it.
The closing date for comments is midnight on Monday 28 October 2024.
Alternatively, if you’re involved in consumer safety and want your comments to be included with other consumer views, please send them to consumer@bsigroup.com by Monday 21 October so they can be collated and submitted.
Katrina Phillips OBE, Chief Executive of the Child Accident Prevention Trust said:
“This update of the button battery safety standard is a crucial next step in ensuring the safety of button batteries and products powered by them.
“We’re delighted that the five top tips on button battery safety, spearheaded by CAPT, under the auspices of the OPSS Working Group on Button Battery Safety, have been recommended as point-of-sale advice for consumers. It’s essential that we’re reminded of button battery dangers and how to keep children safe as we’re making our purchases.
“But there’s still more to do. These are voluntary rather than mandatory standards. So reputable businesses will comply with them and other businesses will ignore them, knowing they can still evade their safety responsibilities.
“Families who have experienced the anguish of losing a child after swallowing a button battery want others to benefit from the protection that mandatory safety standards can offer.”
