More children visited emergency rooms as a result of swallowing batteries or inserting them in their mouth, nose or ears in the last decade compared to the previous two, a new study found.
Researchers estimated that there there were more than 70,000 emergency room visits by children 18 and younger related to batteries between 2010 and 2019. That’s compared to an estimate of about 68,000 during two earlier decades, 1990 through 2009, according to the report published in Pediatrics.
The researchers, analyzing records from an injury database, found the yearly rate of children's emergency room visits had more than doubled compared to the earlier decades.
“Our study shows a hidden hazard in the home: batteries, particularly button batteries,” said the study’s first author, Mark Chandler, senior research associate at Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit working to protect kids from preventable injuries, the No. 1 cause of death for children in the U.S. “Button batteries are the small disk shaped batteries used to power an increasing number of devices, including remotes, toys, watches and key fobs.”
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