
Surgeon warns that swallowing a button battery could be lethal - DanBC
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/campaigns/give-to-gosh/great-ormond-street-hospital-surgeon-warns-of-the-dangers-of-button-batteries-a6783641.html
======
lakeeffect
My brother is an Er physician and yesterday we are all together and our dad is
changing his hearing aid battery at the table. My brother points down at the
battery on the table and says be careful thats a baby killer explaining that
once swallowed the kid almost always dies.

~~~
aurhum
The article is about lithium-based batteries. Zinc-Air batteries killing
children is news to me. link?

~~~
tbrownaw
It has nothing to do with the _kind_ of battery, just the size.

It has to do with swallowing something that can electrolyze anything wet (like
the surface of your insides) into nasty chemicals that will eat holes in
important things.

~~~
aurhum
The cell chemistry only plays an indirect role here (neither zinc nor lithium
are terribly healthy in a child's body I guess).

The lithium batteries are thrown away with a fair bit of energy remaining:
Internal resistance will go up too far to be useful to power something, but
the cell can still electrolize when inside the body.

Zinc-air primaries on the other hand tend to be completely empty when removed
from the hearing aid; they have a really nice flat discharge profile.

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mudil
Interestingly, swallowing separately two magnets can also be lethal. If they
end up attracting each other, they can approximate two different regions of
intestinal tract and cause ischemia.

~~~
Zikes
This is why Buckyballs were banned in the United States[1].

[1] [http://www.wired.com/2012/07/buckyballs-
banned/](http://www.wired.com/2012/07/buckyballs-banned/)

~~~
krick
Jesus, is there something still not banned in the USA? Except from guns, I
mean.

Just for clarity: what exactly "banned" means here? Is it illegal to produce
them? To sell them on the territory of USA? To buy them? Is it ok for me as a
USA citizen order them, say, from China? Would I be arrested if I was seen
playing with a set of buckyballs in the Central Park?

The article mentions the problem that the product was labeled ‘Ages 13+’ which
contradicts some guidelines that obligate to label such products as ‘Ages
14+’. Does that mean that Buckyballs can be simply relabeled with appropriate
caption and continue to be selled?

What it actually means to "ban" something at all?

~~~
singiht34-02
You know it's funny, living now in China sometimes it feels a lot more free
than the US. You can drink, smoke and piss anywhere, and you can go and buy
basically whatever you want (except drugs), drive any way you want - as long
as you're not really bothering other people no one really cares. It helps that
the cops are more bored teenagers and less ex military assholes waiting to
blow some holes in some meatbag. It's s bit of a free for all and sometimes it
feels like a bit of fresh air

Like sure you can't talk about a few things or criticize the gov't, but I have
better things to do anyways

~~~
prodmerc
I feel like people don't appreciate this enough. It's kinda refreshing not
having to follow _so many_ rules and laws, a more laid back society is better
for your mind.

Though the US isn't _that_ bad - most of the time, what you said also
applies...

------
hiharryhere
My dad is head of ENT at a children's hospital in Sydney and goes on a media
blitz in the weeks before Christmas on tv radio and newspapers warning parents
to keep these batteries away from kids.

It's a real problem. Every year he removes these from little kids. They're a
lot more dangerous than almost any other foreign objects that get stuck
because of the electrolysis causing caustic soda.

Be vigilant with your little ones and their new toys.

------
bootload
could kill? This problem has been known since 2013 in Aus ~
[http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3798752.htm](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3798752.htm)

 _" Around 20 children a week are presenting to emergency departments around
the country after ingesting batteries."_ [0]

[0] In November 2015 the message is being escalated ~
[http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4357330.htm](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4357330.htm)

~~~
caf
The findings of the Coronial inquest into Summer Steer's death were recently
handed down:
[http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/444...](http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/444289/cif-
steer-sa-20151103.pdf)

------
cup
I really wish articles would be more visually informative. A photograph of a
'button battery' would be useful. A photograph of the histology of the
oesophagus pre and post exposure would be great.

~~~
Symbiote
Here's a picture of what happens if a button battery is left for a couple of
hours in a sausage: [http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/family/543180/kylie-andrews-
face...](http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/family/543180/kylie-andrews-facebook-
button-batteries-experiment)

~~~
qwerty_asdf
Ugh! Jesus christ, I knew they tasted bad, but aside from tasting just like 9
volt batteries, I figured that was the limit of their unpleasantness.

Also, the clickbait advertising on that site is just plain weird.

------
Pxtl
This is why most kids toys have screw-shut battery compartments now, the bane
of every parent's existence.

------
sandworm101
And why do the kids not vomit up these things? The OP states "here are as many
as 6,000 button battery swallowings". That number seems low given the
prevalence of batteries. Batteries are batteries and kids are kids. These
chemical reactions seem inevitable once a battery is swallowed. So why are so
many kids getting off without injury?

I assume that when the nasty chemistry gets going, the body tried to expel
everything. Our stomaches are very good at reacting that way when things get
weird. I wonder if the minority of kids who suffer horribly injuries are a
subset, perhaps those who had been given anti-nausea medication for some other
reason.

~~~
mkj
I guess the problem is if the battery breaks after it's past the stomach?

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userbinator
The customary warning, "Keep out of children", is very appropriate here.

------
rdl
While the article is about the lithium coin cells, I think hearing aid
batteries are an even bigger risk.

Given that zinc air batteries last for a week or two in most hearing aids (I
use these batteries on active shooting earplugs; they are amazing), it would
be great if some store or other facility frequented by users would do the
change in person with proper disposal for free. (Yes, I buy the batteries in
bulk to save money, but even with the tabs, I can imagine this being a
difficult task for older people with bad eyesight or motor skills to do, so
paying a small premium at retail would work.)

Doesn't work as well for homebound users. Maybe a battery changing robot which
stored the batteries internally, including used ones, for bulk replacement and
disposal? Although a lifetime for a 70 year old of batteries could probably
fit in a small enough volume.

------
yarone
Maybe a (partial) solution would be to make the batteries taste bad? Some
coating on the outside that makes them taste immediately revolting and
increases the likelihood of they'll be spit out

~~~
sandworm101
For it to taste bad quickly enough such a coating would have to be water
soluble. Something like that, on a battery, is asking for trouble. No battery
company wants a reputation for destroying electronics. And heaven help those
with in-ear hearing aids once that noxious coating gets a little wet and drips
into their ear canal.

~~~
Gracana
> For it to taste bad quickly enough such a coating would have to be water
> soluble.

I question that.. There are some pretty powerful bitterants available for this
sort of thing. You don't need much denatonium benzoate to make something
unpleasant to taste, for example: "Dilutions of as little as 10 ppm are
unbearably bitter to most humans."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium)

~~~
sandworm101
But isn't denatonium benzoate water soluble? Using that as a coating on
batteries would make for a rather unappealing product. You wouldn't enjoy
opening the package or handling the things with bare hands. Children's toys
would be ruined by the smell.

~~~
Gracana
Oh, yeah I guess you're right, it's water soluble. I was thinking more
"hygroscopic" when you talked about it ruining electronics, but I guess you
just meant that if it got wet it would cause the device to have bitterant all
over it forever.

I don't think it necessarily needs to be that messy. It has no smell, and you
can buy nail polish that contains the stuff (used to deter nail biting and
thumb sucking), so apparently it can be painted on in a fairly durable
fashion. Just a dot on the battery case ought to do it.

------
Reason077
I'm going to hold out for the Surgeon _General_ 's advice before giving up my
button battery habit.

It's not clear that it's worth quitting just based on what any old surgeon
says!

