A MANUFACTURERS’ GUIDE TO THE HAZARDS OF
BUTTON/COIN CELL BATTERIES
Intertek, the leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide, offers extensive service
solutions to ensure the safety of your product and provide confidence and reassurance
to your customers.
Whilst there have been strict
regulatory standards on children’s
toys and products, there has not been
equivalent regulations in place for
secure compartments for batteries in
other products. Philip Bullock guides
us through the newly created button/
coin battery specification and how
Intertek’s solutions can support your
compliance journey.
Small batteries, which children often
mistake for buttons or coins, are among the
potentially most dangerous components
of consumer products. Increasingly children
are suffering serious injury, often requiring
surgery. In response to these incidents, global
standards organisations and regulatory
authorities are introducing requirements
to minimise the risk associated with these
types of batteries. There is now a new
Publicly Available Specification (PAS) which
gives guidance to manufacturers to ensure
compliance and raise awareness of the risks
associated with button batteries to protect
their end users and brand perception.
What are Button and Coin Batteries?
Button batteries are cells with a cylindrical
shape in which the height is less than the
diameter. They are usually thicker and smaller
in diameter than coin cell batteries but
significantly they do not contain lithium and
are often found in hearing aids, small toys,
and calculators.
Coin cell batteries are thinner and larger in
diameter than button batteries and, unlike
button batteries, they contain lithium. They
can be found in remote controls and key fobs.
If such batteries are ingested, they can
become lodged in close contact with moist
internal body parts. The electrical current
generated as a result can cause chemical
burns; typically, they get lodged in the
oesophagus and this can cause severe
tissue damage and perforation within two
hours. The proximity of the oesophagus to
the aorta, windpipe and lungs increases the
danger as these too can become perforated
due to the continuing reaction.
Data shows there have been 64 fatalities
of children under 5 years of age since 1977
and 248 cases of severe injury. Where
the information was available, 6 out of 10
incidents involved batteries removed from
the device itself. (1) Other studies report over
3,500 cases per year of ingestion of such
batteries in the United States, a figure which
may be conservative due to under reporting.
(2)
In Australia it has been reported that cases
of ingestion are around 20 per week. In
addition, the proportion of incidents resulting
in serious or fatal outcomes has increased in
recent years. (3)
Regulations and manufacturer’s legal
obligations
Existing standards address the dangers of
button and coin cell batteries in numerous
ways including restriction of access to them
when in appliances and warnings shown on
product labelling.
For example, the latest version of BS EN IEC
62115: 2020+A11:2020 (Safety of electrical
toys) requires that “batteries that fit wholly
within the small parts cylinder as specified
in 8.2 of EN 71-1:2014+A1:2018 shall
not be removable without the aid of a tool”.
In addition, specific warnings are required
for button and coin batteries both on the
packaging and in the instructions, covering
disposal and informing users to seek medical
attention if batteries are suspected of being
swallowed or inserted into the body.
However, for many non-toys containing
button or coin cells the safety is regulated
under the General Product Safety Regulations
(GPSR) which has only a general requirement
that products be safe i.e., they present “no risk
or only the minimum risk compatible with the
product’s use and which is consistent with a
high level of protection for consumers.”
A MANUFACTURERS’ GUIDE TO THE HAZARDS OF
BUTTON/COIN CELL BATTERIES
The new Publicly Available Specification
(PAS 7055)
The newly developed Publicly Available
Specification (PAS) contains safety
requirements for button and coin batteries,
addressing the gap in existing product
standards in relation to coin and button
batteries. PAS 7055 is expected to be
published in Q2 2021 and covers the
packaging, labelling and disposal, and
retailing of these types of battery. It also
includes related safety requirements for
consumer products that use these batteries,
e.g. warnings and the security of battery
compartments.
A number of different standards have
been used as the source of many of
the requirement, for example, BS EN
IEC 62368-1:2020 for the security of
battery compartments, BS EN IEC 62115:
2020+A11:2020 for battery compartment
fasteners, and EN 862 for child resistant
packaging.
Whilst not a British Standard, this new
specification could be considered as a “product
safety code of good practice” and therefore,
an appropriate means of assessing conformity
of a product to the general safety requirement
of GPSR. Manufacturers should consider the
requirements of PAS 7055 when developing
new products and ensure their products do
not risk injury to end users from the batteries,
used in the absence of a more specific
standard to demonstrate safety or conversely
to prove that a product is not safe.
The Intertek Advantage
Intertek has over 30 years of experience in
testing toys and childcare articles offering
Total Quality Assurance for our clients. Our
Hardlines laboratory in Leicester, UK has
an experienced team with over 20 years’
experience within the industry. As a trusted
partner, Intertek has been involved in the
revision of an international guide, ISO Guide
50 (Guidelines for Child Safety), which details
the various aspects of safety and advised to
be used for guidance and consideration when
writing standards for children’s products.
Our team are ideally positioned support your
new product development, reviewing and
advising on the most appropriate methods
of ensuring that they do not pose a risk to
children, as described in this document.
Related services
Intertek goes beyond regulatory testing to
provide research and development services
that incorporate real-life child observation
and risk analysis to assess, identify and
predict potential hazards in toys and children’s
products at all stages of development and
production.
Intertek’s global accreditations in children’s
product testing include the U.S. CPSIA, EU
Toy Safety Directive, ASTM International,
Health Canada’s CPSA, GB Standards and
International Standards Organization (ISO), as
well as a number of state regulations including
California’s Prop 65, Washington State’s
Children’s Safe Products Act and Maine’s Safer
Chemicals in Children’s Products Act.n. Our
experts also actively participate in a broad
range of advisory committees and boards
developing standards for children’s products,
including the British Standards Institute
(BSI), American National Standards Institute
(ANSI), Comité Européen de Normalisation
(CEN), American Society of Testing and
Materials (ASTM), and the Juvenile Product
Manufacturers Association (JPMA).
References
1 https://www.hsib.org.uk/documents/128/
HSIB_Undetected_Button_and_Coin_Cell_
Battery_Ingestion_in_Children_
Full_report.pdf
2 https://www.poison.org/battery/fatalcases
3 https://www.poison.org/battery
Meet our Expert
Philip Bullock, Technical Manager for Toys
and Hardlines in Intertek UK
Graduating in analytical
chemistry in 1982
he has over 40 years’
experience in quality
control and technical
support, formerly for a
major retailer in UK and over 20 years
for Intertek.
He is a member of BSI CW/15
toy committee, the BTHA UK Toy
Interpretations Group which discusses
interpretations of the toy standards,
and the advisory group for Toytest, a
laboratory proficiency testing scheme. He
attends European co-ordination meetings
of Notified Bodies under the European
Toy Directive. Over the years he has
contributed to many interpretations and
approaches to issues which have been
adopted by the industry.
He was involved in the revision of ISO
Guide 50 (Guidelines for Child Safety)
which details the various aspects of
safety which should be considered when
writing standards. He has also been a
UKAS technical assessor for toy and
consumer product testing. His day to day
involvement covers not only EN 71 and
EN 62115 but also ASTM F963 and ISO
8124 as well as other consumer product
testing standards such as BS 7272 and
he is the Intertek Leicester contact for
all interpretation decisions covering the
full range of disciplines from physical/
mechanical through electrical to chemical
and flammability.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
+44 (+116) 263 0330
consumergoods.uk@intertek.com
intertek.com/consumer/juvenile-
products-testing/