Battery Safety Rule for Kids' Toys Proposed

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has proposed a rule to address the risks associated with children ingesting button cell or coin cell batteries obtained from toys. The CPSC proposes two actions with this battery safety rule:

1. Address the risks associated with children ingesting button cell or coin cell batteries from toys.
2. Add toys containing those batteries to CPSC’s list of notice of requirements.

Comments on the Proposed Rule must be submitted by October 15, 2024.

Addressing the Risk of Battery-powered Toys

The Commission proposes to address the risk of injury and death associated with children ingesting button cell or coin cell batteries obtained from toys by adding performance and labeling requirements for battery-operated toys containing such batteries. The proposed requirements would provide the highest level of safety feasible and are consistent with the Commission’s recent Reese’s Law rulemaking and international standards for electronic toys.

Such toys include, but are not limited to, light up toys, talking dolls, remote controlled vehicles, stuffed animals, science kits, musical toys, do-it-yourself light up craft kits, electronic board games, and learning tablets/games.

Toys containing or designed to use other types of batteries, where the diameter is less than the height, such as AAA or AA batteries, or non-cylindrical batteries, are out of the scope of this proposed rule because their size and shape does not pose the same type or degree of ingestion hazard as button cell or coin cell batteries.

Per CPSC, these incidents occur due to durability issues, fastener engagement issues, sibling interactions, access to batteries while a parent or caregiver was changing batteries, and easily accessed battery compartments.

Learn more about the proposed performance, marking, warning, labeling, and instructional literature requirements on regulations.gov.