A New Battery Warns Parents if Their Child Has Swallowed It

A new battery from Energizer comes with 'color alert technology' to alert parents if their child has swallowed one. When the coin lithium battery comes into contact with saliva, it activates a blue dye 'so parents and caregivers know that medical attention could be required,' reports the New York Times. The battery also features more secure packaging and a nontoxic bitter coating. From the report: The new coin lithium battery features more secure packaging, a nontoxic bitter coating to discourage swallowing and 'color alert technology' that activates a blue dye when the battery comes into contact with moisture, like saliva, so parents and caregivers know that medical attention could be required. The new battery was announced in a video last week by Energizer and Trista Hamsmith, whose 18-month-old daughter died after swallowing a button battery from a remote control. Ms. Hamsmith founded a nonprofit organization focused on children's safety, successfully advocated for legislation, known as Reese's Law, that requires a secure compartment of the batteries in products that use them as well as stronger warning labels on all packaging, and is now working to make the batteries themselves safer.

Ingested coin or button batteries result in thousands of emergency hospital visits each year, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which notes that 'the consequences of a child swallowing a battery can be immediate, devastating and deadly.' 'A button cell battery can burn through a child's throat or esophagus in as little as two hours if swallowed,' according to the agency. Secure packaging and bitter coatings for batteries have long existed, but 'the massive breakthrough here is the color alert technology, which helps give caretakers that indicator that something has happened,' Jeff Roth, the global category leader for batteries at Energizer, said in an interview on Wednesday. 'The most significant part about this is getting help early in the process,' he said. 'That's really what the color alert technology allows the family to do.'

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