SG 103.22
Reese’s law requires the CPSC to establish product safety standards with respect to batteries that pose an ingestion hazard (e.g., button cell or coin batteries). Such batteries, if sold separately or included separately with a product, must comply with federal child-resistant packaging regulations.
With the signing of Reese’s law, President Biden enacted Public Law 117-171 passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives¹.
The purpose of this act is “to protect children and other consumers against hazards associated with the accidental ingestion of button cell or coin batteries by requiring the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to promulgate a consumer product safety standard to require child-resistant closures on consumer products that use such batteries, and for other purposes.”
The law requires the CPSC to establish a product safety standard within one year of the enactment date. The standard will establish a performance criterion requiring the button cell or coin battery compartments of a consumer product containing button cell or coin batteries to be secured in a manner that would eliminate or adequately reduce the risk of injury from button or coin cell battery ingestion by children that are six years of age or younger during reasonably foreseeable use or misuse conditions with respect to batteries that pose an ingestion hazard (e.g., button cell or coin batteries). Such batteries, if sold separately or included separately with a product, must comply with federal child-resistant packaging regulations.
In addition, the standard will require warning label requirements to be included on the packaging of button cell or coin batteries and the packaging of a consumer product containing button cell or coin batteries; or a warning label to be included in any literature, such as a user manual, that accompanies a consumer product containing such batteries.
The warning label language should clearly a) identify the hazard of ingestion; and b) instruct consumers, as practicable, to keep new and used batteries out of the reach of children, and to seek immediate medical attention if a battery is ingested.
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