Support Reese’s Law (H.R. 5313 and S.3278): Pass Button Battery Legislation Now
Support Reese’s Law (H.R. 5313 and S.3278): Pass Button Battery Legislation Now
I remember being on the floor begging God. ‘Please don’t take her. Not my baby.’ This time she was lifeless, she was blue, and she was no longer with us. I can’t begin to describe the feeling of losing a child or the pain we live with every day…
As a mom, I cannot tell you the cost to add safer closures to products with button batteries. I can, however, confidently speak to the cost of not having these safety measures in place. My daughter, Reese, swallowed a button battery in October 2020; she endured countless surgeries and scopes and was intubated under sedation for 40 days. Reese lost her fight on December 17, 2020, at just 18 months old. Every day we are reminded of just how much our family lost - through countless tears when we find something of Reese’s when least expected and sleepless nights seeing her face in our dreams. The greatest cost of all, though, is missing the brightest light in our lives and the immense pain that no family should have to endure.
There were 4000 button battery ingestions reported in the U.S. in 2020. It is estimated that only 11% of all cases are reported, meaning this is happening to 36,000 children annually. This can be prevented. Australia recently passed National standards related to button battery safety in consumer products. The US should have the same mandatory safe industry standards.
I am asking for your support of a bill to protect all of our children from injury and death related to button cell battery ingestion.
Legislation will call for national standards related to consumer products with button batteries, specifically:
● Button cell battery compartments of all consumer products to be secured, to the greatest extent practicable, in a manner that reduces access to button cell batteries by children that are 3 years of age or younger.
● Warning labels that clearly identify the hazard of ingestion, instructs consumers to keep new and used batteries out of the reach of children and to seek immediate medical attention if a battery is ingested on all consumer products with button batteries and on the batteries themselves.
What happened to Reese can be prevented from happening to others. Help us change the standards to keep all children safe from the dangers of button battery ingestion.