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Safety groups warn about lithium battery danger

by KING 5 HealthLink

KING5.com

Posted on September 5, 2010 at 5:34 PM

Cara and Terry George light up when they think of their daughter.

"She was a beautiful, happy, healthy baby girl and she was and always will be our true joy," said Cara.

But they endured crushing heartbreak when Brenna died at just 18 months after swallowing a battery.

"We scoured our house and we have no idea where it came from," said Terry.

It was a lithium battery - the round kind found in many household items.

"Bathroom scales, car remotes, remotes for your automatic garage door openers," said Colleen Driscoll, International Association for Child Safety.

They are even in those musical greeting cards. The International Association for Child Safety wants parents to be aware of the possible danger lurking in lithium batteries.

"Parents just don't understand the risk," said Driscoll.

The National Capital Poison Center recently did a study looking at 8,000 battery ingestions, not all of which are lithium. But they discovered the bigger, round lithium batteries pose much more than the typical choking hazard. They can get caught in the esophagus and still generate a current inside the child's body.

"It would be like dropping drain opener in tiny little drops into your child's esophagus," said Dr. Toby Litovitz, National Capitol Poison Center.
Safety experts want to see warning labels on products using lithium batteries and they'd like to see manufacturers change the battery compartments.

"Sixty-two percent of children are getting batteries out of the product, and they're doing that because the battery compartment isn't secure," said Litovitz.

They'd like to see compartments changed to require screws. Until that happens, they suggest parents tape the compartments shut and keep lithium battery-powered items out of reach.

The Georges still don't know where Brenna fond the battery she ingested but they're doing what they can to alert other parents.

"Our only hope is to save lives and if we can give one child his or her future and spare one family this unimaginable pain and devastation then we'll be doing something for her," said Cara.

And don't forget about securing the lid on the trash can. Some of these children managed to pull the batteries out of the trash.

The safety agencies say the battery companies are very helpful in the attempt to increase awareness, but the biggest push now is to have safety alerts and change the battery compartments.

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Comments: Displaying 1 - 5 of 5

wmdkitty said on September 9, 2010 at 3:16 PM

Ugh. If parents would PARENT, this wouldn't have happened.

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plutonomics said on September 7, 2010 at 9:26 AM

@think, do have a child? It is impossible to keep your eye on them 24/7. Just as we made lighters child proof, maybe we should make battery compartments child proof. If you'll read the article, the parents still don't know where the battery came from.

51416279
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think said on September 6, 2010 at 8:37 AM

Parents...do what you title says, PARENT. Don't leave or allow hazards around your home, and don't blame everybody, and everything your failure, or misfirtunes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with batteries of any type, if they're not swallowed due to negligence.

51355873
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washingtonapple said on September 6, 2010 at 7:54 AM

The answer is not banning specific types of batteries, but as the article suggests, making them more secure. All batteries are toxic, (Nicad is no exception jackwong, cadmium is very toxic) not very environmentally friendly, and an unfortunate necessity in our current lifestyles. Simply removing any potential threat to children from the consumer market is obviously not an option, but securing them always makes good sense. The computer you read this on has a lithium battery in it very similar to the one which caused the childs death. The job of securing batteries from childrens hands doesn't end with screws through battery access doors, improperly disposed of batteries are much easier for children to access.

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jackwong said on September 6, 2010 at 3:53 AM

Lithium Ion batteries must be banned, because of this inherent danger. We need to all go back to Alkaline and Ni-CAD batteries. Because swallowing Nickel-Cadmium compound is harmless.

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