Button Batteries: A Hidden Danger in Your Home

Button batteries are small, coin-shaped batteries that are used to power a variety of devices, including toys, watches, and hearing aids. They are also found in some household items, such as tealights and remote controls. While button batteries are essential for powering these devices, they can be extremely dangerous if swallowed by a child.

A new law is supposed to protect children from gaining access to these batteries, but as a startling Consumer Reports investigation reveals, gaps remain that may be putting your family at risk.

Button and coin cell batteries are tiny but powerful: You can find them in everything from tealights to toys. And in the hands of young children, they’re uniquely dangerous.

Aside from posing a choking hazard, if ingested, fluids in the body can activate a battery’s electrical current. If a child swallows one, it can become lodged in their esophagus, where it can burn a hole through the tissue and can be life-threatening in as little as two hours.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates there were more than 54,000 ER visits and at least 25 deaths attributed to button batteries from 2011 to 2021. How do children get ahold of these dangerous batteries? Depending on the product, it’s not very hard.

Consumer Reports recently evaluated 31 products that run on button batteries, and the results were alarming. CR found that a third of the toys and household items that they looked at had button batteries that were dangerously accessible.

The battery compartments on five products opened so easily that a child, or potentially even a baby, could access the batteries. The compartments on five items also pose a risk because they are easily breakable. The battery compartments on the other 21 products were safer.

CR tried to contact the 10 companies for comment. All but one either couldn’t be reached or didn’t respond. LumaBase says their newer tealights have screws securing the battery compartments.

To keep your family safe, Consumer Reports says to look around your home for products that require button batteries. If you find any and it has a battery compartment that you can open very easily using just one hand, especially if you have kids or babies at home, it might be a good idea to get rid of it.

CR also recommends storing your batteries where kids can’t reach them.