A typical weekend for me and my family often involves a supermarket stop as trying to slot this in on a weekday can prove to be somewhat challenging. 🏪
If you are anything like me, this often involves a general peruse around most of the aisles to review any few bargains along the way. Yep, I am probably a supermarket product placement teams dream! 💭
You don’t have to look too hard to be distracted by stuff whether it be toys for the kids, some new-fangled remote control, a calculator, scales for the kitchen, or a flameless candle. All of such products often having a button battery within. 🖩
Now although I enjoy looking at all this stuff and do
love a bargain as much as anyone, I’m not one of your normal types of parent punters due to my line of work which always makes me a little more curious about:
The general labelling of product
Where it might have come from?
And in this case…..How the product might be powered?
It never ceases to amaze me how both my children as toddlers had this inbuilt natural inclination to pull objects apart to then place parts of which straight into their mouths literally in the same breath.
All this can have massive implications when you consider that some of those products you find in your local supermarket, any variety store or online platform have a bright, shiny and very small button battery or two within.
We saw a few incidents last year of children swallowing these batteries and having to be rushed to hospital resulting in sometimes a fatality due to the battery mixing with saliva to then burn its way through the digestive system. ⚠️
The good news is that Government is listening as last
year BSI was sponsored by OPSS to produce a standard that set out
a consistent set of safety requirements that apply throughout the
lifecycle of batteries covering: packaging, instructions, labelling,
marketing and disposal.
However what else can be done right now?
Government needs to consider raising further
awareness this year of the problem and work with consumer bodies to launch a series of hard-hitting campaigns.
Government needs to properly understand the reasoning
behind why manufacturers are using these types of batteries, reach out to business and tap into the very latest advances in technology to come up with workable alternatives.
Government needs to reach out to a big names in the battery sector to do some deep dive research and exploration which could lead
to a step change for the better.
Manufacturers need to consider other potential options and at the very least make sensory changes to the batteries to make them
less attractive to young children.
And….then there’s me. I have a very good working knowledge of the standard and can assist any business who needs a helping hand to understand what they can do right now to save lives, prevent potential unnecessary suffering and get ahead of the technology curve.
