You may have noticed your hearing aid battery packages have been harder to open since March of 2024. Thats because of Reese’s law which went into effective March 8, 2024. Reese’s Law is named for Reese Hamsmith who passed away at 18 months after swallowing a button battery. Reese’s law strengthens safety standards for products with button batteries, commonly found in key fobs, toys, and hearing aids. Even though these batteries are mercury-free, they still contain potentially dangerous metals which can cause serious injury or even death, if swallowed. Hearing aid batteries serve an important purpose, but ALWAYS be careful with how you manage them, especially with youn children in the house. Children and pets are especially susceptible to swallowing a battery that’s left on a counter, nightstand or that falls on the floor. But adults also have mistaken hearing aid batteries for medication and have swallowed them too. If ingested, call the National Battery Ingestion Hotline at 800-498-8666.
The National Capital Poison Control Center recommends:
- ALWAYS keep batteries out of reach of children and pets.
- Never leave batteries sitting out. Store spare batteries, and batteries to be recycled, out of sight and reach of young children. If recycling is not possible, wrap used batteries securely and discard them where a child can’t find them.
- Don’t allow children to play with hearing aid batteries.
- Alert family members who wear hearing aids to the importance of always keeping the batteries out of reach of small children.
- Don’t insert or change hearing aid batteries in front of small children. This only increases their
curiosity about the devices. - Don’t store batteries near pills or in pill bottles or mistake batteries for pills.
- Don’t leave them on bedside tables or place them loose in your pocket or purse.
- Carefully look at every medicine you intend to swallow.
- Turn on the lights, put on your glasses, read the label and look at the medicine itself.
- If you use a hearing aid, these steps are especially important. All too often, tiny hearing aid batteries are swallowed with or instead of medications.
- Avoid storing or leaving batteries where they might be mistaken for, or swallowed with, food.
- Don’t leave batteries in drinking glasses or adjacent to nuts, candy, popcorn or other finger foods.
- Do not delay medical care. Go to the closest emergency room immediately. Button batteries can cause serious internal burns, bleeding and injuries. A number of children have either been severely injured or have died from ingestion, including Reese.
- Likewise, if a pet swallows a hearing aid battery, it could be fatal. Take the pet to a veterinary clinic immediately.
- In most cases, medical care will include removing the battery.
- If you’re not sure if a child has swallowed a button battery, err on the side of caution and take them to an emergency room to be assessed.
- Damage can also occur if a child puts a battery in their nose or ear.
