Toy recall, study signal danger in button batteries

September 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Swallowing button batteries can be fatal or cause serious harm, and research suggests that severe injuries in children, though relatively scarce, are on the rise.

The dangers are highlighted in a new medical report about 10 cases at a Utah hospital, including seven that caused severe damage, and in last week’s recall of more than 1 million Chuck E. Cheese battery-containing toys. There are no reports of children injured by the Chuck E. Cheese toys, but the toys were recalled because swallowing batteries can be so dangerous.

Button batteries are widely used in dozens of household products including toys, games, remote controls, musical greeting cards, cell phones, watches and lighted shoes. Batteries pose a special swallowing risk; even if they don’t completely block the throat, they can trigger a chemical process when they lodge there that can burn through tissue within just a few hours.

In the throat, “the window for safely removing batteries is only two hours,” said Dr. Toby Litovitz, director of the National Capital Poison Center.

When surrounded by moist tissue, batteries can create an electrical current that combines with body fluids to form a caustic chemical, she explained.

The Archives of Otolaryngology published a report Monday from doctors at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City about 10 cases treated there between 1998 and 2008. All were babies and young children; many required major surgery.

Of 80 severe cases reported to Litovitz’s center since the 1970s, 42 occurred since 2004. Ten of 14 deaths reported since 1977 occurred within the past six years, Litovitz said.