Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
Lithium button cells can cause severe injury or death if swallowed.
Many makers coat their batteries in a bitter substance to discourage ingestion.
Energizer has now added a marker dye to make it easier to spot ingestion.
Lithium button cell (sometimes called coin cell) batteries are everywhere, from car key fobs to AirTags. And while they seem innocent enough, if ingested, they can cause severe injury from esophageal or airway damage in less than two hours, which can, in the worst cases, result in death.
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Each year in the US alone, some 3,500 button cells are swallowed, mostly by children. I've encountered one such injury myself, and seen a number of examples in first aid training materials, and it is no joke.
Making button cells safer requires two things: preventing accidental ingestion and being able to spot if a button cell has been ingested.
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