Retailers Adopt New Industry Code For Button Batteries to Prevent Child Deaths and Injuries

A number of Australian companies have adopted a new voluntary industry code designed to lessen the number of children killed and injured after swallowing button batteries.

Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Energiser Australia and Officeworks are among the major retailers that have adopted the Industry Code for Consumer Goods that Contain Button Batteries which has been developed by a range of businesses, with support from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and state regulators.

The code comes after reports that 20 Australian children are taken to emergency departments every week, after suspected exposure to button batteries.

“Children under the age of five are at the greatest risk,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“Once loose, children can easily mistake the batteries for lollies. This new Code is an important step towards ensuring children cannot access the batteries, thereby reducing the risk that they will swallow them.”

This industry code is intended to guide manufacturers, retailers, importers and online suppliers in their supply and use of button batteries. It highlights that in many cases, deaths and injuries “may have been prevented” if the device had a secured battery enclosure, or caregivers had known to store and dispose of new button batteries securely out of reach of children.

“This industry code is fantastic because the people involved are all the big retailers,” Ms Rickard said.

“Right now the code is voluntary, and our hope is that by bigger suppliers driving quality we will see that filter through. But if at the end of two years we aren’t seeing big changes, we will look at whether we need to implement regulation in the sector “¦ I don’t think this is an area where we can be complacent.”

Ms Rickard also said that educating parents and doctors about the dangers of button batteries is a key purpose of the code. “A lot of doctors don’t recognise the signs, so we are making sure they know the symptoms and getting common procedures in place,” she said.

In order to comply with the code, manufacturers’ products must have a battery compartment that is secured, with a screw or bolt, or it must have a compartment that requires two or more independent and simultaneous actions to remove its cover.

The code also requires information to be available at the point of sale, in a store and online, indicating that the product requires button batteries and that they are hazardous to young children.

Retailers are also urged to use child-resistant packaging marked with a warning, and to consider the height at which button batteries and products containing button batteries are displayed in stores.

The small disc-shaped batteries are used in almost everything, from children’s toys to TV remote controls. If swallowed, they can burn through an oesophagus.

Two children in Australia were killed in 2013 and 2015 due to ingesting button batteries.

Source: Essentialbaby.com.au