THE DANGER OF SWALLOWED BATTERIES

FROM:  HHS HealthBeat (May 31, 2012) 
Swallowed batteries
Button batteries are good for electronics but very bad for kids. Researchers report more than 5,500 battery-related emergency department visits in 2009 by people under age 18. Children ages 5 and under accounted for more than three quarters of them.

Button batteries can burn a hole in the esophagus in less than two hours. At the Center for Injury Research and Policy of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Gary Smith:

"If a parent thinks that their young child has swallowed a button battery, they need to go immediately to the emergency department to have an X-ray done. They need to tell them that they think it’s a button battery because the clock is ticking."

The study in the journal Pediatrics was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.