New standards for Button Batteries

The Australian Government has introduced four mandatory standards associated with the use of button and coin batteries. The standards apply to both button cell and coin cell batteries, and to the products that include them. They include:

• Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Information Standard

  The information standard requires that you must include warnings: In the instructions, if they accompany the goods. On the package, if the goods are packaged, and attached to the goods themselves, if the goods aren’t packaged.

  The warnings must be clearly visible, prominent, and legible.

• Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Safety Standard

  This mandatory standard defines the safety requirements for all consumer goods containing button/coin batteries, including storage containers and organizers. Consumer goods containing button/coin batteries must meet secure battery requirements and are subject to compliance testing.

  All consumer goods that contain a button/coin battery: must be secure and must not release the batteries during reasonably foreseeable use or misuse of the product. This is mandatory whether or not the battery is intended to be user-replaceable.

• Consumer Goods (Button/Coin Batteries) Safety Standard

  This mandatory standard defines the requirements for child-resistant packaging when supplying button/coin batteries. Button/coin batteries must be supplied in child-resistant packaging. This means that the packaging limits a child’s ability to access the batteries. It is not necessarily child-proof.

• Consumer Goods (Button/Coin Batteries) Information Standard

  This information standard requires that: any packaging used to supply button/coin batteries must be marked clearly with a warning and that button/coin batteries with a diameter of 20 mm or more must be marked with a 'keep out of reach of children' symbol on the battery itself.