"For a few years now, several button cell manufacturers have been coating their batteries in Bitrex, a harmless chemical compound that's the most bitter substance known. A thimbleful in an Olympic-sized swimming pool can make all the water bitter. Also: The best rechargeable batteries you can buy This substance is added to a wide array of products to prevent ingestion, from bleach and antifreeze to Nintendo game cards. And let me tell you, this stuff is awful (if you don't believe me, you can actually request a free taste test kit from the maker)."
"Another step that manufacturers have taken is to make the packaging hard to open without using scissors. This makes it much harder for adults and children alike to access new batteries. Battery maker has taken things a step further with its Color Alert line. In addition to hard-to-open packaging and a liberal application of Bitrex, a patch of dye has been applied to the battery to make it more obvious if it has been in someone's mouth."
Lithium button cell batteries can cause rapid, severe esophageal or airway injury within two hours when swallowed, sometimes resulting in death. Approximately 3,500 button cells are swallowed annually in the US, predominantly by children. Manufacturers use multiple mitigations: coating batteries with Bitrex to impart an extremely bitter taste, designing hard-to-open packaging to limit access, and applying marker dye patches to make batteries visibly identifiable if placed in a mouth. The combination of prevention and detection measures aims to reduce accidental ingestion and speed recognition and treatment when ingestion occurs.
Read at ZDNET
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