Australia – Safety Warning Notice for Button Batteries Published

Vol. 1074 | 15 Apr 2019

On 29 March, 2019, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) published a safety warning notice to communicate the possible risks involved with button batteries and their use in products.

There are constantly product recalls for products containing button batteries. Button batteries are flat, round, single-cell batteries with diameters up to 32 mm, and the main battery chemistries used are alkaline, lithium and silver oxide.

Suppliers are strongly encouraged to adopt the principles outlined in the voluntary Industry Code for Consumer Goods that Contain Button Batteries published on July 2016.

The highlights of the code are listed below:

• Product should be designed and manufactured such that the batteries are not accessible to young children when the consumer goods, or the packaging of any replacement batteries provided is subjected to normal use or reasonable foreseeable misuse, and
• Battery compartment should be secured (preferably with a captive screw, a bolt or mechanism) such that it requires a tool to gain access to the batteries; or requires two or more independent and simultaneous actions to be removed, and
• Information should be available at the point of sale, including for online sales, if the product requires button batteries to operate and that these are hazardous to young children.

For more information,

John Wong
john.wong@intertek.com 
852 3760 6310