Thousands of emergency room visits every year are attributed to children ingesting batteries. Legislation has been passed requiring battery compartments to have a locking mechanism, but this has only partially lowered the number of hospital visits. The current method of treatment is to remove the batteries as soon as possible to minimize the damage done to the children’s insides since the batteries can cause serious electrochemical burns within hours of ingestion.
Little has been done to technically modify batteries to make them safer to ingest, until now. A research team has developed a waterproof, pressure-sensitive coating that makes the batteries nonconductive in in the low pressure gastrointestinal environment yet are conductive in the high-pressure of standard battery housings. These coated batteries can be used in most battery-operated devices without modification.
These batteries limit the external electrolytic currents responsible for tissue injuries attained after swallowing.
Submitted by Victoria Ordeman
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