The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is sharing new
posters which can be downloaded and shared by stakeholders to
promote button battery safety and awareness.
These posters feature top tips that have been developed through
collaboration with accident prevention charities, clinicians,
manufacturers, online marketplaces and trade associations. See
footnote 1.
They warn parents about the risks of button batteries and provide
5 top tips to keep children safe:
-
Look around your home for button
batteries. Think toys, lights, remote controls and more.
-
Check for products with loose backs and
button batteries that have dropped out.
-
Store button batteries in a safe place,
up high and out of your child's reach.
-
Dispose of used button batteries as soon
as you can. They are still unsafe.
-
Act if you think your child may have
swallowed a button battery, go straight to A&E or call an
ambulance.
Used button batteries should not be disposed of in the household
rubbish. They should be dropped off for recycling at a collection
point at a supermarket, or any other big shop that sells over 32
kg of batteries a year.
The 5 top tips are included in the updated Button Battery
Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 7055:2025 developed by the
British Standards Institution (BSI) with input from an expert
steering group, which was published on 30 April.
Find out more
about button battery safety – Child Accident Prevention
Trust website
Download
the PAS 7055:2025 – BSI website
Footnote
- The button battery top tips were produced by a working group
chaired by the Child Accident Prevention Trust with
representatives from Amazon, Amdea, Alibaba, British Retail
Consortium, British and Irish Portable Battery Association,
British Standards Institution, Chartered Trading Standards
Institute, eBay, Electrical Safety First, Energizer, Etsy, OPSS
and RoSPA and representatives from local authority trading
standards services.
