�°������ϲʹ�������

Small button batteries – found in a range of domestic items – can burn a hole through the lining of a child’s oesophagus should they accidently swallow them, surgeons have claimed.

 

London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital said it is now treating approximately one child every month with this condition, a sharp rise from 10 years ago.

 

Kate Cross, consultant neonatal and paediatric surgeon, said that button batteries should be treated like poison and kept out of reach of children.

 

“If the battery gets enveloped in the mucosa of the oesophagus it creates an electrical circuit and the battery starts to function, releasing an alkali which is like caustic soda, which can erode through the wall to the windpipe,” she said.

 

“If the battery is facing a different way it can burn into the aorta, a major blood vessel, and there have been cases in Britain where the child has bled to death.”

 

A key method of exploration for young children is to put items into their mouths, but children’s hospitals across the country are trying to raise awareness of the dangers of button batteries, urging parents to keep them under lock and key.

 

Ray Clarke, consultant surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, said: “We have also had a few cases of children putting them into the nose with nasty consequences, including perforation of the nasal septum (a hole in the partition between the two nostrils) or putting them into their ear causing serious inflammation.”

 

Two years ago US engineers created button batteries which only conducted electricity when squeezed, but the technology has not yet been incorporated by manufacturers.

 

The British and Irish Portable Battery Association (BIPBA) said that it “takes the safety of consumers very seriously” and that it is investigating these designs.