According to the company, the increased frequency of coin cell batteries is because of ever smaller sized electronic gadgets (like remote controls or Bluetooth trackers). The reality that the batteries are potentially unsafe to kids also suggests more bothersome product style for adults, like Ikeas frustratingly difficult-to-remove battery door on its Sonos remote.
The idea of utilizing a bittering representative to dissuade accidental gadget snacking isnt a new one– most famously, Nintendo utilizes a comparable method to prevent kids from consuming physical Switch game cartridges. And while its unclear whether Duracell is utilizing the same bittering agent as Nintendo, if its anything like the Switch cartridges (which The Verges managing editor Dieter Bohn says “tastes like insecticide,” “It is literally the worst thing,” and that the taste “wont disappear. I do not want to do this once again,”) it likely needs to do a respectable job of discouraging unintentional battery snacks.
Duracell is trying to make its coin cell batteries a little less enticing to eat: the business is including a brand-new bitter covering to its 2032, 2025, and 2016 size lithium coin batteries, with the goal of discouraging young kids from inadvertently eating the otherwise (apparently) irresistible-looking batteries.
The brand-new batteries– which started presenting in shops earlier this month– include a covering on the bottom that responds with saliva to release a bitter taste that will in turn discourage kids from in fact swallowing the battery. Duracell keeps in mind that swallowing a lithium battery can trigger a “harmful chemical reaction in as low as two hours.” By making the batteries too bitter to swallow, the business is intending to prevent those concerns from turning up.
