An Important Change to Small Battery Packaging
Millions of individuals use hearing aids in the United States… which means they’re using even more “button cell” or “button” style batteries.
Button batteries are also commonly used in watches, calculators, car fobs, activity trackers and small toys. While their miniature size is convenient for powering small devices, they can also pose a serious risk for young children. According to Poison Control, approximately 3,500 people ingest button batteries every year in the United States.
If these small batteries do not pass through the digestive tract, they can burn through soft tissue, causing permanent damage to organs and in some cases, death.
In an effort to protect children from the dangers of ingesting button batteries, a law called Reese’s Law (Public Law 117-171) was passed in 2022 and enacted in 2023. The law is named after Reese Hamsmith who died at 18 months old, two months after ingesting a button battery. Included in the law are new rules around warning labels and mandating child-resistant packaging.
(Read more about the law on the Code of Federal Regulations page.)
With these important protective measures comes changes for hearing aid users who may be accustomed to easily opening their battery packaging on the go. And because these rules apply to batteries packaged after September 2023, some users may not have encountered this situation yet, if they’re using batteries purchased before the rule went into effect.
To address this, Katie Donoghue, AuD, CCC-A, audiologist at the Clarke Hearing Center offers some advice for hearing aid users—particularly the parents of children who use hearing aids who may need to replace batteries away from home and at unexpected moments.
First, An Activation Reminder:
“Remember that if the batteries touch each other or other metal, they will start to activate,” she warns. “Users will need to leave the sticker on the battery and keep them separate from each other as either instance will start to activate the battery.”
Tips for Accessing Hearing Aid Batteries on the Go
- Add compact travel/sewing scissors to your diaper bag/purse/car so they are readily available for cutting open battery packaging.
- Use a child-resistant battery caddy which often comes in the form of a keychain. This way you can pre-cut the batteries out of the package while keeping them separated from each other.
- A daily child-resistant pill organizer can also keep the pre-cut batteries separated.
- Sometimes battery testers (which often come in the hearing aid kit from the manufacturer) also have a small drawer in them to store the pre-cut batteries.
- Staying on a schedule for replacing the batteries is also helpful—especially for young children who may not be experienced self-advocates yet. Often, once a week is sufficient. Choosing a day of the week and consistently changing the batteries that day could make for less surprises/emergent battery changing on the go. For children with more severe losses or who are streaming/using HAT (hearing assistive technology) systems during the day, this schedule might be more frequent. (Your audiologist can advise the best timing for this!)
- Because more and more hearing aid options are becoming rechargeable—with no batteries to change—some families will not need to consider this issue.
And most importantly, ensure that any system you establish for storing these batteries is child safe.
There are numerous products for storing small items (usually pills) that can be locked, including medication bags, pill organizers and lock boxes.
More Resources
- National Battery Ingestion Hotline: 1.800.498.8666
