Should Products With Button Batteries Have Stricter Safety Rules?

Official title: Consultation: Comment period for the danger to human health or safety assessment for products containing button or coin batteries and the packaging of button and coin batteries

Open Regulations & Permits Finance & Consumer Health & Safety
Health Canada wants to know if products containing button and coin batteries should meet stricter safety standards. These small, shiny batteries are a serious hazard for young children—swallowed batteries can cause severe internal burns within hours. Many products already meet the proposed safety criteria, but those that don't could be pulled from shelves.

Why This Matters

Got a toddler who puts everything in their mouth? Button batteries are in toys, remotes, hearing aids, and greeting cards. If swallowed, they can burn through a child's esophagus in just two hours. This consultation could make battery compartments harder for kids to open and packaging safer.

What Could Change

Products that don't meet the new safety criteria could be banned from sale in Canada. Battery compartments may need to be child-resistant. Packaging could require warning labels and secure closures. Manufacturers would need to redesign non-compliant products or stop selling them.

Key Issues

  • Should products with button batteries that don't meet safety criteria be classified as a danger to human health?
  • What safety standards should apply to battery compartments and packaging?

How to Participate

  1. Read the danger assessment document to understand the proposed safety criteria.
  2. Email your comments to ccpsa-lcspc@hc-sc.gc.ca by the deadline.

Submit Your Input

Draft Email

Key Documents