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Comment by hackama | Hacker News Reader

CR2032 is 2cm wide so you're probably referring to smaller batteries as these cannot be swallowed by a child.

That is simply not true.

Children can easily ingest objects 2cm in diameter, and batteries that size can be especially dangerous because of how they lodge in the esophagus.

Citing Eck, Langham says, "Clinical outcomes can be determined by assessing the diameter of the button battery, as 90% of all major or fatal outcomes are associated with lithium batteries of 20 to 25 mm in diameter"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7536469/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32011339/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430915/

Interesting, I did not know that. What I also find interesting is that those that did swallow a battery between 20 - 25mm, there was no damage in more than 50% of the cases. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/125/6/1168/ta...

Those statistics are over a decade old, they also clearly summarise the danger of 20mm sized batteries.

'RESULTS: All 3 data sets signal worsening outcomes, with a 6.7-fold increase in the percentage of button battery ingestions with major or fatal outcomes from 1985 to 2009 (National Poison Data System). Ingestions of 20- to 25-mm-diameter cells increased from 1% to 18% of ingested button batteries (1990–2008), paralleling the rise in lithium-cell ingestions (1.3% to 24%). Outcomes were significantly worse for large-diameter lithium cells (≥20 mm) and children who were younger than 4 years. The 20-mm lithium cell was implicated in most severe outcomes.'

Last package of 2032s I bought had a foul-tasting coating on them that is supposed to make small children instantly spit them out. Is that not standard nowadays? Not sure how effective it is as I was not brave enough to lick them myself.

Nintendo Switch cartridges (sd card sized) use the same kind of coating.

My understanding is that, tragically, this has not been effective enough.

The rule of thumb used to be that if it fits in a 35mm film canister, it's too small to have around children younger than 3. Nowadays I suppose a lot of people don't know what a film 35 mm canister is...

In Sweden all infant parents are offered the "smådelscylinder" (literally "cylinder for small parts") [1] in which you can put things to determine if they're safe or not. Very handy.

[1]: https://www.homesafety.se/produkter/ovriga-produkter/smadels...

Another metric is a toilet paper tube.

I imagine smaller diameter batteries are a bigger issue but apparently the concerns are for this class of batteries in general. [1] That said, I don't see a call for banning them but just for being aware of the potential danger. (Although another link in this thread does seem to actively discourage using them.)

[1] https://www.kidsafevic.com.au/product-safety/button-batterie...

Yes there is, that ABC article is especially painful to read. The number of parents holding pictures of these kids most no older than 4 who have died from these batteries.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-15/button-batteries-land...

https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-welcomes-safety-a...

People are not going to stop using small replaceable batteries.

And kids will continue to die from them, if you want to be that absolute about the topic.

The devices themselves are probably choking hazards for young kids. As are a thousand other things around the house to say nothing of poisons.

The other thousand of things aren't as small though right?

Yes and items that are choking hazards for children are taken off the shelves. Poisonous chemicals must by law be clearly labeled and have child safety caps on them. Button batteries are not regulated, are found in more and more toys and devices that don't have necessary safety measures, have no warnings, are easily swallowed, the body gives no immediate reaction unlike chocking, is misdiagnosed because of this, and is an incredibly painful and prolonged death.

That ABC article I linked describes a family watching their 14-month old daughter dying over 19 days as the battery literally burns her insides while doctors continue to misdiagnose the problem until its too late. This is not a tragic one off incident, it is occurring repeatedly and will continue to do so if things stay as they are.

With mortality figures as low as they are it’s hard to see that number decreasing considerably with increased regulation. In each example there appears to be morbidity secondary to unacceptably delayed medical diagnosis. It is incredibly easy to spot a battery on a plain film and an infant/toddler presenting with the symptoms described warrants immediate suspicion.

Number of deaths is not the only metric of concern. The batteries can cause life changing injuries within hours. The immediate symptoms can be easily mistaken for a flu. Doctors do not require an X-ray for the flu. Without an X-ray the button goes undetected.

Excluding the issue of misdiagnosis, if every case was found by medical practitioner at first sight, there are still major complications and possible surgical intervention required to remove the battery.

These numbers are from a country with a population of 25 million. Im sure the numbers of injuries and deaths are much higher in countries like the US.

Think of the children!

Parents should be doing that.

It isn't a moral issue so the joke isn't relevant. The article I linked mentions that parents hid the real truth of their child's death for fear of judgement. Neither the parents nor the medical professionals were aware of the problem until it was too late, but I guess thats just the fault of bad parenting?

The link in my post shows the damage a CR2032 button does when swallowed.

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