Child-friendly button batteries
American girl Reese Hammersmith would have turned four on 13 June last year, were it not for the fact that at the age of just 18 months, she swallowed a button battery that proved fatal to her.
Reportedly, this seems to happen to 2,000 children a year worldwide. The current from an ingested battery dissolves body tissue from the inside, which can lead to permanent damage or even death. The day before Reese’s birthday was declared National Button Battery Awareness Day to alert parents to the danger of button cell batteries for small children.
In the Netherlands, TU Delft battery researcher Marnix Wagemaker and technician Frans Ooms together with doctors from Groningen developed a patent-pending child-friendly button battery that does no harm when swallowed. The battery has an internal fuse that breaks contact if the current becomes too high, which is what happens after swallowing. The fused button battery was submitted for patent July last year.
Heart-lung surgeon Tjark Ebels from UMC Groningen, who was involved in the development, says: “The beauty of our patented Fused Button Battery system is that it is compatible with all standard manufacturing processes for button batteries.” He hopes that child-friendly button batteries will soon become the norm. That could prevent a lot of suffering.
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