Warning Issued Not To Eat Lithium Batteries

We’ve all heard about those wacky and stupid warning labels on products - for the dumber consumer and to protect the companies from hotdogs who get the bright idea to try to iron their pants while they’re wearing them, among other things. Now a warning has been issued on batteries that it is not a good idea to eat to eat lithium batteries. The New York Times related a story of Aidan Truett, a one-year-old Ohio tot who came down with a strange illness that doctors assumed was pneumonia after he spent nine days vomiting. After a chest X-ray, doctors found not an infection but one of the tiny “button-sized” lithium batteries inside him. As a troubling as this story is, what’s surprising is how rare death from battery ingestion appear to be: fewer than 10 documented fatalities in the last six years. But that could be changing. About 3,500 cases of people ingesting button cell-size batteries now occur every year, but the consequences of those cases are worsening as batteries get more powerful while remaining the same size. That has prompted batteries makers to put warnings on the tiny batteries that read: “Do not swallow lithium batteries.” The move comes as people continue to be sue-happy, looking for an easy cash payout from companies.