Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi is visiting Starship Hospital this Friday as part of an unprecedented initiative to keep New Zealand kids safe from harm from button batteries. Source: Youtube / @Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
If the number of children landing in Starship hospital after swallowing button batteries does not plummet this year, the Government is considering legislating against them.
Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi announced this morning businesses and button battery manufacturers will be given the chance to make the product safer before the Government steps in.
Speaking at Auckland City Hospital today, Faafoi enacted a Product Safety Policy Statement, asking businesses to think about how to make it harder for small children to get their hands on the common but dangerous item.
They can leak acid when swallowed, causing irreversible damage to surrounding tissue.
"Most households have many products which use button batteries – from novelty musical cards to watches and remote controls. The small size can cause a serious health risk if swallowed, especially for children," Faafoi said.
"While button batteries are a necessary power source for many consumer goods, their use has to be weighed up with the more important priority, which is consumer safety."
The tiny disc-shaped batteries are small enough to swallow or fit up a toddler's nostril and 20 children a year are landing in Starship Children's Hospital after ingesting one.
Once swallowed a button battery quickly causes serious tissue damage and can create permanent injury within four hours.
In worst case scenarios, like that of Tauranga toddler Devon Hacche, serious burns to the inside of a child's throat can need multiple surgeries and make it likely the child will never eat normally.
Devon Hacche, seen here in hospital in 2015 after swallowing a battery at 8 months old. Photo / File
Faafoi and representatives from the Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation (MBie) say manufacturers of button batteries and the products they are used in need to think about how to make them safer.
As button batteries are manufactured offshore, the policy statement most strongly targets New Zealand suppliers and retailers.
Solutions included making battery compartments more difficult for tiny fingers to open, and rethinking the packaging button batteries are sold in. Clear and safe instructions for disposal should also be provided.
If there wasn't a drastic reduction in the number of children ending up in Starship in about a year, Faafoi said he would have to consider whether to introduce regulation around the product.
"As a parent you want to see really fast progress," the father of three said.
"One [child] is too much."
Faafoi was confident businesses would be responsive and said MBie officials were working with businesses to get the message across and work on solutions.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi announcing his policy statement at Auckland City Hospital. Photo / Tess Nichol
Overseas about 60 children have died after swallowing button batteries, and emergency department paediatrician Mike Shepherd worries that unless changes are made it's only a matter of time until a Kiwi child dies too.
In one example raised today, an Australian toddler died after opening the battery compartment for a set of electronic scales, slipping out the button battery and swallowing it.
If a child came in and was suspected of having swallowed a battery, things needed to move fast in a way that could be distressing for a 1- or 2-year-old, Shepherd said.
"Acid from an electrical current in the batteries rapidly burns surrounding tissue, causing severe damage."
Surgery to remove a battery was an intense procedure for small children and damage the batteries could cause was sometimes permanent.
"The worst cases we've seen here in Starship are patients who have been in hospital for over a year; children who will never swallow properly."
In December 2014, 8-month old Tauranga toddler Devon Hacche landed in hospital with serious injuries after swallowing a lithium-ion button battery.
