Our coalition of medical, public health, and consumer organizations welcomes the opportunity to submit the following comments to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) regarding the agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking to establish a safety standard for toys containing button cell or coin cell batteries. We commend the CPSC’s work on the proposed safety standard and submit to the agency the following comments.
Button cell and coin cell batteries are ubiquitous and useful, powering a range of common items such as toys, tools, remote control devices, garage door openers, bathroom scales, flameless candles, watches, cameras, hearing aids, and digital thermometers. However, button cell and coin cell batteries pose significant risks, particularly for children, necessitating specific protections.
When ingested, button cell and coin cell batteries can obstruct a child’s airway or esophagus, leading to choking hazards. Ingestion may also lead to chemical hazards in the child’s airway or esophagus, resulting in life-threatening burns, perforations, or necrosis of the child’s soft tissue. These batteries can even erode soft tissue all the way to the aorta, the largest artery in the body, resulting in massive hemorrhaging and death. Chemical burns from the ingestion of these batteries can also result in extensive internal tissue damage throughout the digestive tract.
Symptoms of ingestion in children are often overlooked because the symptoms mimic other common conditions, such as croup, colds, or viral illnesses with vomiting (known colloquially as “stomach flu”). In addition, given their ubiquity, these batteries are often ingested without adult awareness of the button cell or coin cell battery’s accessibility. Parents unaware of the battery ingestion may not be able to provide a physician with a complete history, which may delay diagnosis or result in a misdiagnosis. The children who ingest these batteries may not beold enough to verbally express they ingested the battery. Older children, who know they are not supposed to ingest these, may not want to tell the adult to avoid getting into trouble. Consequently, every year, children are at risk of serious, life-threatening injuries due to undetected battery ingestion. It is critical to ensure that the toys that children are most likely to interact with regularly meet strong standards and are designed to keep button cell and coin cell batteries out of children’s hands.
Our coalition was proud to support Reese’s Law, which Congress passed in 2022 to protect children against hazardous button cell and coin cell battery ingestion. This bipartisan law requires the CPSC to promulgate a safety standard for button cell and coin cell batteries and consumer products containing button cell or coin cell batteries. Reese’s Law excluded toys already compliant with the CPSC’s current safety standards pursuant to 16 CFR part 1250. The CPSC now proposes amendments to part 1250, aiming to align its requirements more closely with its safety standard for button cell or coin batteries and consumer products containing such batteries. These proposed performance and labeling requirements for toys containing these batteries will help mitigate the risk of children accessing button cell or coin cell batteries in the first place, which will prevent serious and even life-threatening injuries.
To read full comments, click here.