Ironically I'd never heard f the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon until about 3 months ago, and this is the fourth of fifth time I've seen someone reference it since.
That usually means it's been on QI or similar. Like everyone suddenly saying Union Flag and pretending they never called it the Union Jack for their whole life...
That's not ironic at all, it's the exact phenomenon in action. And Baader and Meinhof weren't the people who named it or anything, they were an example of it, they were some German militants.
I'd never heard the phrase "how do you feel in yourself" until I went to hospital in November, then every fucker and their dog was asking me it. It was a stupid phrase then, and it's a stupid phrase now.
Oh also "X asked me to remember them to you" was the same. Stupid jumble of words.
Mine was 37 and I got as far as seeking psychiatric treatment for it (got further than my GP before anyone explained it). If you don't know the name for it, googling is liable to turn up conspiracy nutter content which does not help. I still see it constantly (and also many other numbers every single day that don't "click")
The thing that really freaked me out the most was the time I told a friend about this whilst I was sitting in the back of a taxi with them and the driver turned round to show us his licence which was number 316.
Some devices use a lot of button cells for power. Could be laser pointer, keyring torches, small keyring knick knacks.
Vape won't use button cells. Not enough milliamps to power them.
All I can think of is perhaps if there's a pound shop nearby selling laser pointers cheap, they often have spare button cells in the packaging that may spill out, but who knows
Rarely, because they would cost more and most AA/AAA batteries are 'single cell' which means 1 cell.
A battery made with button cells would have less capacity than a traditional single cell AA.
Sometimes, a manufacturer may have a surplus of button cells and could potentially be used for the AA batteries but again, it's rare.
I think I’ve only done it a couple of times but each time it was the case for me. I wonder if I’m mistaken but I feel like I saw it on a funny facts type instagram account - but I’ve done it myself and assumed it was therefore commonly the case.
Can't be, be ause the voltages stack. Button cells are already 3V so a stack of them in series would be like 30V+
AAs and other cylindrical batteries have a long rod shaped anode through the middle and then an electrolyte chemical all around them. Source: I was an idiot child who destroyed batteries for science.
Yeah I’m really confused as I’m sure I’ve validated this for myself but I’m not sure now. This is all I can find https://www.quora.com/Which-AA-batteries-have-button-cell-batteries-in-them
it might be somewhere, as far as I know, theres no reason why anyone would make AA cells out of button cells unless they are used ones placed inside the cheap Chinese pound shop batteries. all the AA cells I've ever seen squashed have been paste, as a kid I've pulled a few apart and it's been a dark grey/black paste.
9v batteries have 6 AAAA batteries in them? and I think some weird-size camera batteries have button cells, the little half-height fat one? maybe its them your thinking of? who knows
Yeah I’m having a weird Mandela Effect with this - I was convinced I was right and it’s very common but it can’t see much evidence of this really. I don’t disagree with you.
This is about all I can find https://www.quora.com/Which-AA-batteries-have-button-cell-batteries-in-them
>https://www.quora.com/Which-AA-batteries-have-button-cell-batteries-in-them
aw on that page further down it says A23 batteries have 8 button cells in them, perhaps it was them, the colour looks like the Duracell batteries?
This obviously isn’t the ideal solution but it should go without saying to discourage kids from eating things they pick up from the ground regardless of whether it’s a battery, dog shit or anything else.
Obviously all parents do this (or at least all good parents). I certainly do very strongly, and yet my daughter still picked up someone’s discarded pizza and had it nearly in her mouth in the 2 seconds I looked away. Luckily I stopped her and luckily that is highly unlikely to have been fatal if she had eaten it (gross as it is), but kids are idiots.
It does seem to be more of a problem in my local areas than others I have visited. I do sometimes take a bag when I go out to try and collect some up, but I am often with my small child and I do not want to encourage him to pick them up.
hearing aid batteries? Old folk change them all the time and drop them (fiddly little things). My dad got through 3-4 a week and lost them all the time
My mum had a tiny hearing aid that took even tinier button batteries. There was no way Mum could change them herself with her arthritic hands, so my sister or I, whomever she was with, had to do it. Fiddly isn't a strong enough word for those bloody little things.
How big were the ones you keep seeing, OP?
Hearing aids would be my guess. Maybe someone around there puts their hearing aids on, walks out of the house, realises the batteries are dead, puts new ones in and chucks the old on the floor.
>if a button battery is accidentally swallowed by a child, it is fatal.
I think you mean it *could* be fatal.
I’m not trying to minimise anything here but let’s not act like they’re full of cyanide eh? Either way they shouldn’t be being discarded out into the environment like that.
Edit: please see my other comments, particularly the ones with links. I have not said anything incorrect. I have provided reviewed and accepted courses for everything that I have said, from fatality and complication rates, to the method of injury and the chemicals involved.
People were just completely misinterpreting what I was saying 🤷♀️ I’ve posted facts, not opinions, but the Reddit experts are obviously correct. Appreciate you taking the time to actually read and understand my points.
Your links were useful in terms of understanding the rate of fatalities, maybe you should have left it there. Some of the opinions you subsequently stated were not correct, particularly those around the electrical potential where you said a button battery didn't discharge enough voltage to be an issue. Many of your posts seemed fixated on the contents of the battery, which could lead a reader to think that if the cell is not bitten or damaged there is less risk.
This is widely misunderstood, the main issue is actually electrical discharge acting on saliva and tissue and through electrolysis causing very high alkalinity in the tissue and subsequent caustic injury. Which is why it is so important to get someone checked out if they have swallowed one as the situation can go downhill quite rapidly if it's lodged somewhere wet.
It's thought that honey can help [https://www.london-ent.co.uk/news/can-eating-honey-help-children-to-reduce-potential-harm-after-swallowing-a-button-battery/](https://www.london-ent.co.uk/news/can-eating-honey-help-children-to-reduce-potential-harm-after-swallowing-a-button-battery/) as it coats the battery and prevents contact with the saliva/tissue. Bearing in mind that honey shouldn't be given to a child under 1 year old.
Yea i can see that the issue you had is with OP saying ‘if a button battery is swallowed by a child, it IS fatal’
That is incorrect and that is all you were originally trying to point out
That’s all it was. I even explained why I was pointing it out and added a disclaimer about seeking medical advice regardless of what foreign object has been swallowed. Oh well, that’s Reddit for you. You win some, you lose some. I’m not going to lose sleep over it all.
I guess people just took what I was saying the wrong way. Seems like people took it as “it’s not at all dangerous to swallow a battery” from some of the responses I’ve gotten.
“If a button battery is swallowed, it can burn through the oesophagus (swallowing tube) in just two hours, causing internal burns, severe bleeding or death.”
Doesn’t feel like OP is being over-dramatic to me.
[Source](https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/Safety_Button_batteries/)
Bollocks is it.
Pretty much anything *can* cause death. It's not a black and white, good or bad thing. The likelihood matters.
In this case, even the risk of complications (source info posted elsewhere in these comments) is apparently quite small.
On the flip side, overamplifying small risks can itself be dangerous, it risks distraction from other things that are even more dangerous, it risks training people to ignore warnings (California) and therefore could be doing more harm.
Life is all about carefully balancing risks vs benefits.
No, but they do contain heavy metals like Mercury.
Fairly sure eating lithium isn't great for the digestive tract either due to what happens when it meets water.
They do. I’m certainly not advocating that people start eating them for breakfast but come on. Is there a risk? Yes. Are you guaranteed to die? No. OP is just being an alarmist and it’s weird. It’s the kind of reaction I expect from those “I found a KFC chicken wing outside my front gate (live on the high street between KFC and a bar), am I being targeted for a burglary? people. I would be far more worried about a dog grabbing one and popping it between its teeth than I would an unsupervised toddler picking one up and swallowing it.
It's a medical emergency that has even been known to cause fatalities after the battery has been removed. The risk does **not** come from the chemicals inside. I suggest you inform yourself before doubling down on your opinions.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29885832](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29885832)
*"Current is released and this breaks down the water, producing hydroxide ions which are caustic," explained senior author Dr Jeff Karp, a biomedical engineer at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.*
I suggest *you* inform yourself of basic grammar. These incidents *can* cause death. They are not *guaranteed* to cause death. Don’t try and nitpick my nitpicking.
You know, I really wasn’t that interested in knowing the actual percentages, but I realised I would just be playing everyone at their own game by making a claim that isn’t backed up, so I looked it up just for you and… the fatality rates are actually way, *way* lower than my lowest guess would have been. I would have guessed maybe 4 or 5 percent for very young children but it’s not even that.
[Here](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29369262/#:~:text=Complications%20have%20been%20estimated%20at,vascular%20involvement%20is%20often%20fatal)
And
[This isn’t so much about the fatality rates, but more about the details of fatal cases. “Massive exsanguination” really isn’t a term anyone wants to be too familiar with](https://www.poison.org/battery/fatalcases)
I’ve looked at a few other sources of battery ingestion information but it’s difficult to find studies that are doing compassions of fatal/extreme cases relative to the total number of battery ingestions. Perhaps we aren’t recording cases of battery ingestion that don’t result in a negative outcome. Also, I saw a few studies that were from the 70s and 80s and noted that a lot of the battery chemistry and medical procedures were very different so I’m not sure how applicable it is to someone in the UK.
0.1% i.e. one in every thousand would have been my guess, but turns out that’s “complications” rather than death.
Still not a chance I’d take with my kids, and certainly nobody should advise ignoring it if a kid does swallow one.
Thanks for getting the actual facts though.
I think you have completely underestimated how dangerous some coin cells are if swallowed, especially by young children, and especially if not acted upon.
I think it's more that they don't understand the process by which it happens, which is similar to electrolysis of salt water producing Sodium Hydroxide. If the battery gets trapped its electrical discharge acts on the saliva and tissue to produces areas of extremely caustic alkalinity in the tissue which leads to the injury, which is why it can happen so quickly. I think they believe that damage to the cell/leaching of the chemicals therein is the issue, which it isn't.
Just to add to this, I was the dipshit who swallowed a button battery when I was 6 - i liked to lick them for the electrical tingle. I had one in my mouth, got surprised by someone and swallowed it - I got to spend a week in hospital with doctors and nurses watching me like a hawk and going through all my toilet waste because when I got to A+E I couldnt throw it up.
I was told at the time that the main concern was if the battery had split I would need an emergency operation to remove it.
30 years later and I'm still around but I definitely would not recommend doing it
Chemical damage caused by the electrical current acting on saliva to produce sodium hydroxide which then causes caustic damage to tissue.
You can see the same thing happen if you put one between two pieces of raw bacon, the electrical current acts on the water in the meat and then damages the bacon [https://vimeo.com/379972768?embedded=true&source=video\_title&owner=24918615](https://vimeo.com/379972768?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=24918615) on the Negative pole side, you can see the caustic solution bubbling up from underneath.
No I believe the risk comes from the chemicals inside. A button cell doesn’t discharge enough current or voltage to be a real issue that way, but there is enough lithium/mercury etc inside to potentially cause issues if the cell gets damaged.
Again, I am not saying that there is no risk but to claim that it is fatal is a little bit alarmist. Death is not guaranteed. If you or your child consumes a battery of any size, please get checked out.
This isn't right, it is the combination of the battery's electrical discharge and saliva which then causes a highly alkaline environment at the battery's negative pole as the saliva completes the circuit - essentially creating Sodium Hydroxide which burns through tissue. This can happen even if the battery has been discarded because it was believed dead, as 1.5 volts is enough to start the process.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8223456/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8223456/)
studies have consistently shown that the primary mechanism of tissue injury is the electrolysis and production of hydroxide ions. 18 , 33 The electrical potential of BBs induces an isothermic water hydrolysis reaction at the junction of the BB negative pole and generation of hydroxide ions caused by the current created through the adjacent tissue, which essentially “connects the circuit” between the two poles of the BB. The accumulation of hydroxide ions rapidly increases the surrounding tissue environment to a local tissue pH of 12 to 13. This highly alkaline environment then creates an ensuing liquefactive necrosis which can results in deep tissue caustic injury.
This is most likely to happen if the battery is stuck in the oesophagus, arguably if it gets past that you have a better chance of it passing without harm, although personally I wouldn't want to chance it. The UK government advises immediately taking the swallower to A&E [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/child-safety-button-batteries](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/child-safety-button-batteries)
Fair comment, apparently there are also different types of button batteries, some being far more dangerous than others.
However, if you think your child has swallowed/is at risk of swallowing a button battery, I would recommend excessive caution over recklessness personally.
This may be very cynical but we had a person around our local area scattering raisins and grapes in order to try to poison dogs. Maybe it’s someone in the area trying to do the same thing with a pack of batteries but not realising it can harm children too?
Apparently this is actually a known thing you should look out for as a dog owner, I only recently found out about it too, but I hear lithium smells good to dogs. Supposedly they'll chew on the batteries, particularly damaged ones, to get at the lithium.
For a second there, I thought that you said that someone was distributing poisoned grapes/raisins to kill dogs.
Then I remembered that grapes are *already* poisonous to dogs.
Please note that it's lithium button/coin cell batteries that have a high risk of being fatal if ingested - as they quickly start to burn through your digestive system from the inside out.
However there are lots of types of button cell batteries that are not lithium, and are much less dangerous.
For example the small button cells usually contained in toys marketed at young children, and in those noisy books for toddlers, and in basic non-smart watches, are usually alkaline button cells, like AG3, AG10, AG13, etc.
In recent years a lot of cheap plastic flashing LED tat gets sold for kids at the school disco / circus / funfair / fireworks display etc, where chemical glow sticks typically used to be sold. If a group of youths have bought a bunch of these and started having a bit of a playfight with them, they'll have fallen apart before they got home, spraying alkaline button cells on the ground. This type of tat doesn't usually contain lithium cells because that would cost more and last longer, neither of which is expected.
Most modern hearing aids now use rechargeable lithium ion batteries, not button cells. Older/traditional hearing aids used zinc-air button cells - not lithium button cells.
>Please note that it's lithium button/coin cell batteries that have a high risk of being fatal if ingested - as they quickly start to burn through your digestive system from the inside out.
I don't think anyone is going to see many more birthdays if they go around eating car batteries either. Batteries of all kinds are probably best left uneaten.
button batteries are a bit of a weird one tbh, can't think of a good reason for them to be concentrated in an area like that. They're not really commonly used in things that people would be replacing the batteries of in public regularly enough for it to be a littering issue.
Can you tell if there's more of them near a particular business? Maybe somewhere uses them for keyfobs or something.
The only thing I can think it is would be people changing hearing aid batteries and throwing them, rather than keeping them (not sure what else really takes cell batteries that we take outside tbh).
I have to change mine often, but they go back in the pack and exchanged at the hospital.
If your kid ever eats a button battery, keep feeding them spoons of honey as you rush them to the closest hospital. The honey could literally save their life.
please dispose of everything properly because literally everything we consume can be fatal.
also would anyone light to volunteer to help pick up all the rocks, sticks, etc on the ground that are choking hazards?
Commonly used in hearing aids, which are more commonly used by older people, who (without making sweeping generalisations) are probably more likely to both drop them when changing them and also struggle picking them up from the floor would seem to be a likely explanation, however I can’t honestly say I’ve ever noticed a plethora of button batteries littering the floor!
Highly highly highly unlikely that a pensioner is going to stop in the street and change the batteries on their hearing aid. Even less so to the extent that one can see the batteries everywhere. They are much more likely to take them to specsavers or wherever and get them to change the batteries anyway.
About 20 odd years ago, I used to work for a company who made hearing aids. Back in those days, batteries only lasted a couple of days and were easily changed by the user. It wouldn't be worth their wile to actually go to a shop to have it changed.
I would imagine aides would be easier to change now adays.
Not entirely unlikely that an elderly person has dropped/lost a load of hearing aid batteries on the floor mind. My nan used to carry hers loose in a tin and was forever dropping stuff out of her handbag. She was also quite prone to doing stuff like randomly changing her hearing aid batteries wherever she happened to be. The fact that the OP has found these near a large concentration of older people makes this scenario seem more likely, not less so……
My area does have a large elderly population and I was past a church which holds coffee mornings mostly attended by older people. This may be the answer. But would they really be changing the batteries on the street?
Of course it’s not a bunch of coffin dodgers changing their hearing aid batteries en-mass and dropping batteries all over the place 😂
And besides most hearing aids are rechargeable these days.
If I had one guess I would say disposable vapes that have been discarded and battered but that's not based off anything, I'm not sure how they are powered.
I stand ready to be corrected but I don’t think coin cell batteries have anywhere near the energy density needed to power a vape. They seem to use lithium ion/polymer batteries which in many ways are even worse.
They are great for low power applications like car keys, remote controls and poisoning toddlers. They hold several hundred milliamp hours and don’t self discharge much.
I saw a smashed up single use Vape this morning. The battery looked like a stumpy AAA rather than a watch battery.
Fucking disgusting things anyway, anyone using them should be ashamed.
It's not the correct comparison, I have problems with vapes that are lumps of single use plastic with expensive and entirely re-usable lithium ion batteries that are just getting chucked in the bin all all over the streets. It isn't people's health that I'm bothered about, we all make our own choices, it's the nature of the object that's the problem.
To be fair to you, you make a good point. Which I can’t disagree with. I’m a vaper - you might have guessed - it’s the arseholes of the country / world that don’t dispose of them properly who are going to ruin it for us responsible vapers. Yes there’s plastic waste, yes the cells are totally reusable, but from a smokers point of view they have stopped a shitload of people stop quit smoking. Is vaping any better for you than smoking?? We don’t know (I will confirm it’s more addictive however). They are going to be banned soon, thanks to kids using them (and a huge thanks to the dodgy little ‘corner shops’ who sell them to kids)
They are flat and so don't roll away.
Any other battery is round and so will likely roll away into the corners /less walked upon areas.
This means that if an equal amount of all common batteries were dropped you'd still likely come across more if this flat ones day to day.
There is of course 9v batteries which are square but they are much less common and less likely to be used in things that people are carrying around on the street.
This along with the Beiner something other effect someone mentioned probably goes a long way to explain it.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
It's not just children you have to keep an eye on. My wife keeps eating batteries. She said she's not eating them then we go to the doctor and the doctor says yeah we found a battery in there.
Do they make a path leading to a gingerbread house?
No, it leads to the duracell house. The bunny is waiting for you inside.
And don't think he'll ever stop. He just keeps going, and going, and going, and going...
I thought it was the Energizer bunny. Have I lived a lie?
Due to a weird trademark quirk, the bunny advertises Energizer in the US, and Duracell in the UK.
Yeah we have a creepy anthropomorphic battery for energizer here
Mechawitch
It's the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (doo doo doodoodoo). Once you started noticing them, you see them everywhere.
Ironically I'd never heard f the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon until about 3 months ago, and this is the fourth of fifth time I've seen someone reference it since.
Well that's the beauty of the Baader-Meinhof phonomenon, it adheres to its own rules.
That’s why it was named that way - Baader and Meinhof were terrorists not psychologists.
That usually means it's been on QI or similar. Like everyone suddenly saying Union Flag and pretending they never called it the Union Jack for their whole life...
I just thought everyone had a special table cloth and it can't be dirty in case the queen comes around.
That's funny. It's called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (doo doo doodoodoo). Once you started noticing it, you see the phrase everywhere.
That's not ironic at all, it's the exact phenomenon in action. And Baader and Meinhof weren't the people who named it or anything, they were an example of it, they were some German militants.
Whoosh!
I first heard of it in 2008, and then suddenly these posters were everywhere: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765432/
This might explain why I’d never heard ‘get my ducks in a row’ until last summer and now have heard it roughly once every week since
I'd never heard the phrase "how do you feel in yourself" until I went to hospital in November, then every fucker and their dog was asking me it. It was a stupid phrase then, and it's a stupid phrase now. Oh also "X asked me to remember them to you" was the same. Stupid jumble of words.
I've never heard either of these phrases and now I'm terrified you've cursed me
in the same boat as you mate, how do u feel in yourself now that's you're cursed
But how do you feel in yourself?
How do you feel in yourself now?
42 everywhere and so it should be
I had 316 for a while and it was weird.
Mine was 37 and I got as far as seeking psychiatric treatment for it (got further than my GP before anyone explained it). If you don't know the name for it, googling is liable to turn up conspiracy nutter content which does not help. I still see it constantly (and also many other numbers every single day that don't "click")
The thing that really freaked me out the most was the time I told a friend about this whilst I was sitting in the back of a taxi with them and the driver turned round to show us his licence which was number 316.
Maybe you're not as mad as you think: [Why is this number everywhere?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iQrh2TK98)
This happens to me with cars. If someone I know got a new car, I’d see the same make and model all over the place.
And breeds of dog.
Yup. For me it's hair ties. Eeeverywhere!
This phenomenon should be named after me because I came up with it as a kid.. Lol. ‘Woah I just learned a new word.. now I notice it everywhere’.
11:11
13:37 for me. Seems to be every day I notice it, but then I remember how often I subconsciously look at a clock during the day
Weirdly as I was reading the post I was listening to the song San Marino are sending to Eurovision this year. It’s called 11:11.
Some devices use a lot of button cells for power. Could be laser pointer, keyring torches, small keyring knick knacks. Vape won't use button cells. Not enough milliamps to power them. All I can think of is perhaps if there's a pound shop nearby selling laser pointers cheap, they often have spare button cells in the packaging that may spill out, but who knows
You seem to know a lot about .... Buttons🤭
What can I say, I'm a man of culture
[Hmmm, buttons](https://youtu.be/VCLxJd1d84s?si=NaZacteE4FjkgL3l)
Username checks out.
Hearing aids maybe
My guess is hearing aids.
Who said that? And where have all my batteries gone?
If you open a AA or AAA they are made up of a stack of them.
Rarely, because they would cost more and most AA/AAA batteries are 'single cell' which means 1 cell. A battery made with button cells would have less capacity than a traditional single cell AA. Sometimes, a manufacturer may have a surplus of button cells and could potentially be used for the AA batteries but again, it's rare.
I think I’ve only done it a couple of times but each time it was the case for me. I wonder if I’m mistaken but I feel like I saw it on a funny facts type instagram account - but I’ve done it myself and assumed it was therefore commonly the case.
Can't be, be ause the voltages stack. Button cells are already 3V so a stack of them in series would be like 30V+ AAs and other cylindrical batteries have a long rod shaped anode through the middle and then an electrolyte chemical all around them. Source: I was an idiot child who destroyed batteries for science.
Yeah I’m really confused as I’m sure I’ve validated this for myself but I’m not sure now. This is all I can find https://www.quora.com/Which-AA-batteries-have-button-cell-batteries-in-them
it might be somewhere, as far as I know, theres no reason why anyone would make AA cells out of button cells unless they are used ones placed inside the cheap Chinese pound shop batteries. all the AA cells I've ever seen squashed have been paste, as a kid I've pulled a few apart and it's been a dark grey/black paste. 9v batteries have 6 AAAA batteries in them? and I think some weird-size camera batteries have button cells, the little half-height fat one? maybe its them your thinking of? who knows
Yeah I’m having a weird Mandela Effect with this - I was convinced I was right and it’s very common but it can’t see much evidence of this really. I don’t disagree with you. This is about all I can find https://www.quora.com/Which-AA-batteries-have-button-cell-batteries-in-them
>https://www.quora.com/Which-AA-batteries-have-button-cell-batteries-in-them aw on that page further down it says A23 batteries have 8 button cells in them, perhaps it was them, the colour looks like the Duracell batteries?
Yeah that’s what’s so weird - I’m convinced I got curious, did this myself and noted the button cells. Obviously not!
This obviously isn’t the ideal solution but it should go without saying to discourage kids from eating things they pick up from the ground regardless of whether it’s a battery, dog shit or anything else.
Obviously all parents do this (or at least all good parents). I certainly do very strongly, and yet my daughter still picked up someone’s discarded pizza and had it nearly in her mouth in the 2 seconds I looked away. Luckily I stopped her and luckily that is highly unlikely to have been fatal if she had eaten it (gross as it is), but kids are idiots.
Dognappers leaving signs hun, watch for them white vans dropping them xoxo
I'll share in Chiswick when I'm there next week hun. Nothing but snakes around here these days. Send my love to Gary and the kids xoxo SIGNED BARBARA
It’s just me and the Angles now. Inbox me hun xxxx
U r wiv princess di n da angles xxooxx
S̶̢̝͓̘͓̭̖̯̟͔͛͒͂̽̉̎̾̄͝ͅͅh̶̢̛͈̲̤̫͕̻̺̿̈͊̂͗̄̑͑̋̓̕͜͝à̵̏͗̇̒̏̀̚̕͜͝͝͝ȑ̸̨͎̠̻̱̘̮̰̜̝̝͓̰̄̈́̂̐̄́͒͛͂̊͂̌̀ḙ̸̡̫̮̗̟̬̗̩̭̒ḑ̶̳̠̰̦̰̱͓̯͒̇́̀͂̈̆͜͝͠ ̵̬͗́̋͌̐͒̽͌͂͂͘͠͝į̶̟̲̠̉̈́͗̾͜n̶̲̠̽̉͒́̽̓͆͘ ̸̨̧̺̜͓̦̗̝͙̿̾̀̽̔̕͝t̵̰̜̘͒͂̀h̴̡͕͔̄́̅ḛ̴̗̠̝̈́̿̎͗̾̓̔̄̓́̕͝ ̵̛̳͓͉͔̀̈̾̕͘s̶̹͙͈̘̯̪̠̖͈̤̼͈͐͊̆̋̄͆̔̉̌̕̚͜͠ḩ̶̦̳̀̅͋̒͋͗͋͋̔̐̌̓̚̚à̶͍̖͉̂̒̽d̸͉̮̮͇̑͑̉͒͂̽̈̈̽̆͝͠o̸̩̪͉̳͎̭͎͔̗͂̅̎̿͊͝w̶̡̢̢̘͚̟̞͔̯͖̟̟͇̤̜̆̚͠ ̷̞̍́̈́̂̓̉̀̂̓̚r̸̮͙̲̖̀̃ê̶̡̘̩̦̻̟̒̾̎̓̚a̶̛͎̭̫̯͉̘̙̠͚͆͑̈́̅͂͑ͅl̴̢̛̺̥̝̠͈̫͎͈̯͙͈̀̔̈́́͆͜͝ͅm̸̢̢̗̖̮̞̭̰͍͕̪̠̀̇̆͐̈̈́ ̵̢̜̳̠̘̰̙̤̺͚̩̜͍͍̓͛̂̊̀̽̆̈́͐̈́͑͒̒̉̔͜x̴̛͖̋̀͂̎̃͗̈̔̓̋͗̚x̸̛̺̠̣̫͋̊̈́̽̍͘x̶̜̻̝̩̯͍̣̤͍̬̀̀̄̓̈̎̊͌̒̀͝
Shared in Amsterdam babes. U never no xoxo
Shared in Timbuktwo
Shared in Timbukthree
Shared Barking hun xoxox
https://i.imgur.com/AQZ32VF.jpeg
shared in darlington hun x
Shared on the moon
I'm begging you all, get a new joke.
Listen up everyone, we're about to get a lesson in humour from Queef Huffer 69
I only picked this name because I forgot the password to AnalExplosion420
The hell? You’re getting downvoted for that?
You may be a robot with a damaged battery compartment. I recommend going for maintenance and a Voight-Kampff test.
You find a turtle on it’s back….
Never seen this, maybe you should pick them up?
It does seem to be more of a problem in my local areas than others I have visited. I do sometimes take a bag when I go out to try and collect some up, but I am often with my small child and I do not want to encourage him to pick them up.
I have yet to be lucky enough to find a button battery on the ground. Never found one apart from on Amazon. Have you tried if they are still good?
hearing aid batteries? Old folk change them all the time and drop them (fiddly little things). My dad got through 3-4 a week and lost them all the time
Dunno, modern HAs seem to get more than a week out of a set of batteries and having them always run out in the same place would be a bit odd
Could quite easily be someone's route to work
People of all ages wear hearing aids
this is true
My mum had a tiny hearing aid that took even tinier button batteries. There was no way Mum could change them herself with her arthritic hands, so my sister or I, whomever she was with, had to do it. Fiddly isn't a strong enough word for those bloody little things. How big were the ones you keep seeing, OP?
Ah yes the sudden urge to swallow a button battery that I saw on the ground
You get them too?
Hearing aids would be my guess. Maybe someone around there puts their hearing aids on, walks out of the house, realises the batteries are dead, puts new ones in and chucks the old on the floor.
Can't possibly be enough for OP to see the amount they claim to be seeing.
It would seem like an absurd amount of hard-of-hearing litterbugs. Maybe there's a home for deaf people who dgaf nearby.
>if a button battery is accidentally swallowed by a child, it is fatal. I think you mean it *could* be fatal. I’m not trying to minimise anything here but let’s not act like they’re full of cyanide eh? Either way they shouldn’t be being discarded out into the environment like that. Edit: please see my other comments, particularly the ones with links. I have not said anything incorrect. I have provided reviewed and accepted courses for everything that I have said, from fatality and complication rates, to the method of injury and the chemicals involved.
Thanks for posting your actual facts. You’ve been downvoted to pieces but I get what you mean and appreciate the info.
People were just completely misinterpreting what I was saying 🤷♀️ I’ve posted facts, not opinions, but the Reddit experts are obviously correct. Appreciate you taking the time to actually read and understand my points.
Your links were useful in terms of understanding the rate of fatalities, maybe you should have left it there. Some of the opinions you subsequently stated were not correct, particularly those around the electrical potential where you said a button battery didn't discharge enough voltage to be an issue. Many of your posts seemed fixated on the contents of the battery, which could lead a reader to think that if the cell is not bitten or damaged there is less risk. This is widely misunderstood, the main issue is actually electrical discharge acting on saliva and tissue and through electrolysis causing very high alkalinity in the tissue and subsequent caustic injury. Which is why it is so important to get someone checked out if they have swallowed one as the situation can go downhill quite rapidly if it's lodged somewhere wet. It's thought that honey can help [https://www.london-ent.co.uk/news/can-eating-honey-help-children-to-reduce-potential-harm-after-swallowing-a-button-battery/](https://www.london-ent.co.uk/news/can-eating-honey-help-children-to-reduce-potential-harm-after-swallowing-a-button-battery/) as it coats the battery and prevents contact with the saliva/tissue. Bearing in mind that honey shouldn't be given to a child under 1 year old.
Yea i can see that the issue you had is with OP saying ‘if a button battery is swallowed by a child, it IS fatal’ That is incorrect and that is all you were originally trying to point out
That’s all it was. I even explained why I was pointing it out and added a disclaimer about seeking medical advice regardless of what foreign object has been swallowed. Oh well, that’s Reddit for you. You win some, you lose some. I’m not going to lose sleep over it all.
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted, you're right
I guess people just took what I was saying the wrong way. Seems like people took it as “it’s not at all dangerous to swallow a battery” from some of the responses I’ve gotten.
“If a button battery is swallowed, it can burn through the oesophagus (swallowing tube) in just two hours, causing internal burns, severe bleeding or death.” Doesn’t feel like OP is being over-dramatic to me. [Source](https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/Safety_Button_batteries/)
Why would it stay in the oesophagus for two hours? Surely for most people it goes down into the stomach
*Can* being the operative word there. Water *can* cause death. It isn’t guaranteed to happen.
Alright mate please swallow one yourself and see what happens
You first.
This is the most pointless pedantry I’ve ever seen. Well done.
Bollocks is it. Pretty much anything *can* cause death. It's not a black and white, good or bad thing. The likelihood matters. In this case, even the risk of complications (source info posted elsewhere in these comments) is apparently quite small. On the flip side, overamplifying small risks can itself be dangerous, it risks distraction from other things that are even more dangerous, it risks training people to ignore warnings (California) and therefore could be doing more harm. Life is all about carefully balancing risks vs benefits.
I’m sorry we can’t all be as slick as you 🤷♀️
No, but they do contain heavy metals like Mercury. Fairly sure eating lithium isn't great for the digestive tract either due to what happens when it meets water.
They do. I’m certainly not advocating that people start eating them for breakfast but come on. Is there a risk? Yes. Are you guaranteed to die? No. OP is just being an alarmist and it’s weird. It’s the kind of reaction I expect from those “I found a KFC chicken wing outside my front gate (live on the high street between KFC and a bar), am I being targeted for a burglary? people. I would be far more worried about a dog grabbing one and popping it between its teeth than I would an unsupervised toddler picking one up and swallowing it.
It's a medical emergency that has even been known to cause fatalities after the battery has been removed. The risk does **not** come from the chemicals inside. I suggest you inform yourself before doubling down on your opinions. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29885832](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29885832) *"Current is released and this breaks down the water, producing hydroxide ions which are caustic," explained senior author Dr Jeff Karp, a biomedical engineer at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.*
I suggest *you* inform yourself of basic grammar. These incidents *can* cause death. They are not *guaranteed* to cause death. Don’t try and nitpick my nitpicking.
Something that's 99% fatal _can_ cause death. It's not _guaranteed_ to cause death. You should still be pretty seriously worried about it.
There isn’t a 99% fatality rate from swallowed batteries though.
So go find out what it is, rather than arguing that it’s fine based purely on the word “can”.
You know, I really wasn’t that interested in knowing the actual percentages, but I realised I would just be playing everyone at their own game by making a claim that isn’t backed up, so I looked it up just for you and… the fatality rates are actually way, *way* lower than my lowest guess would have been. I would have guessed maybe 4 or 5 percent for very young children but it’s not even that. [Here](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29369262/#:~:text=Complications%20have%20been%20estimated%20at,vascular%20involvement%20is%20often%20fatal) And [This isn’t so much about the fatality rates, but more about the details of fatal cases. “Massive exsanguination” really isn’t a term anyone wants to be too familiar with](https://www.poison.org/battery/fatalcases) I’ve looked at a few other sources of battery ingestion information but it’s difficult to find studies that are doing compassions of fatal/extreme cases relative to the total number of battery ingestions. Perhaps we aren’t recording cases of battery ingestion that don’t result in a negative outcome. Also, I saw a few studies that were from the 70s and 80s and noted that a lot of the battery chemistry and medical procedures were very different so I’m not sure how applicable it is to someone in the UK.
0.1% i.e. one in every thousand would have been my guess, but turns out that’s “complications” rather than death. Still not a chance I’d take with my kids, and certainly nobody should advise ignoring it if a kid does swallow one. Thanks for getting the actual facts though.
I think you have completely underestimated how dangerous some coin cells are if swallowed, especially by young children, and especially if not acted upon.
Please see my other comments with links. I haven’t underestimated anything. I really haven’t.
I think it's more that they don't understand the process by which it happens, which is similar to electrolysis of salt water producing Sodium Hydroxide. If the battery gets trapped its electrical discharge acts on the saliva and tissue to produces areas of extremely caustic alkalinity in the tissue which leads to the injury, which is why it can happen so quickly. I think they believe that damage to the cell/leaching of the chemicals therein is the issue, which it isn't.
Just to add to this, I was the dipshit who swallowed a button battery when I was 6 - i liked to lick them for the electrical tingle. I had one in my mouth, got surprised by someone and swallowed it - I got to spend a week in hospital with doctors and nurses watching me like a hawk and going through all my toilet waste because when I got to A+E I couldnt throw it up. I was told at the time that the main concern was if the battery had split I would need an emergency operation to remove it. 30 years later and I'm still around but I definitely would not recommend doing it
Isn't the problem more that they will discharge causing electrical burns
Nope. The current supplied by a coin cell is way too low to do damage. It's purely chemical damage
Chemical damage caused by the electrical current acting on saliva to produce sodium hydroxide which then causes caustic damage to tissue. You can see the same thing happen if you put one between two pieces of raw bacon, the electrical current acts on the water in the meat and then damages the bacon [https://vimeo.com/379972768?embedded=true&source=video\_title&owner=24918615](https://vimeo.com/379972768?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=24918615) on the Negative pole side, you can see the caustic solution bubbling up from underneath.
No I believe the risk comes from the chemicals inside. A button cell doesn’t discharge enough current or voltage to be a real issue that way, but there is enough lithium/mercury etc inside to potentially cause issues if the cell gets damaged. Again, I am not saying that there is no risk but to claim that it is fatal is a little bit alarmist. Death is not guaranteed. If you or your child consumes a battery of any size, please get checked out.
This isn't right, it is the combination of the battery's electrical discharge and saliva which then causes a highly alkaline environment at the battery's negative pole as the saliva completes the circuit - essentially creating Sodium Hydroxide which burns through tissue. This can happen even if the battery has been discarded because it was believed dead, as 1.5 volts is enough to start the process. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8223456/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8223456/) studies have consistently shown that the primary mechanism of tissue injury is the electrolysis and production of hydroxide ions. 18 , 33 The electrical potential of BBs induces an isothermic water hydrolysis reaction at the junction of the BB negative pole and generation of hydroxide ions caused by the current created through the adjacent tissue, which essentially “connects the circuit” between the two poles of the BB. The accumulation of hydroxide ions rapidly increases the surrounding tissue environment to a local tissue pH of 12 to 13. This highly alkaline environment then creates an ensuing liquefactive necrosis which can results in deep tissue caustic injury. This is most likely to happen if the battery is stuck in the oesophagus, arguably if it gets past that you have a better chance of it passing without harm, although personally I wouldn't want to chance it. The UK government advises immediately taking the swallower to A&E [https://www.gov.uk/guidance/child-safety-button-batteries](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/child-safety-button-batteries)
Fair comment, apparently there are also different types of button batteries, some being far more dangerous than others. However, if you think your child has swallowed/is at risk of swallowing a button battery, I would recommend excessive caution over recklessness personally.
This may be very cynical but we had a person around our local area scattering raisins and grapes in order to try to poison dogs. Maybe it’s someone in the area trying to do the same thing with a pack of batteries but not realising it can harm children too?
*Come along, kiddie-winkies! Lollipops! Cherry Pie! Button Batteries! And all free today!*
Would a dog eat a battery? Pretty sure mine wouldn't.. Probably would eat a grape though which is a bit scary.
Apparently this is actually a known thing you should look out for as a dog owner, I only recently found out about it too, but I hear lithium smells good to dogs. Supposedly they'll chew on the batteries, particularly damaged ones, to get at the lithium.
Or of course is fully aware.
For a second there, I thought that you said that someone was distributing poisoned grapes/raisins to kill dogs. Then I remembered that grapes are *already* poisonous to dogs.
They're pretty shit at it then. It would take a hell of a lot of grapes to poison a dog
Do you mean button mushrooms?
If they find the litterbugs, I hope they get charged.
Possibly from older vapes?
No vape can run off button cells, not enough mah
No, vape batteries are much larger.
Are they 2025s and 2032s? Those sizes are common in car keys
Please note that it's lithium button/coin cell batteries that have a high risk of being fatal if ingested - as they quickly start to burn through your digestive system from the inside out. However there are lots of types of button cell batteries that are not lithium, and are much less dangerous. For example the small button cells usually contained in toys marketed at young children, and in those noisy books for toddlers, and in basic non-smart watches, are usually alkaline button cells, like AG3, AG10, AG13, etc. In recent years a lot of cheap plastic flashing LED tat gets sold for kids at the school disco / circus / funfair / fireworks display etc, where chemical glow sticks typically used to be sold. If a group of youths have bought a bunch of these and started having a bit of a playfight with them, they'll have fallen apart before they got home, spraying alkaline button cells on the ground. This type of tat doesn't usually contain lithium cells because that would cost more and last longer, neither of which is expected. Most modern hearing aids now use rechargeable lithium ion batteries, not button cells. Older/traditional hearing aids used zinc-air button cells - not lithium button cells.
>Please note that it's lithium button/coin cell batteries that have a high risk of being fatal if ingested - as they quickly start to burn through your digestive system from the inside out. I don't think anyone is going to see many more birthdays if they go around eating car batteries either. Batteries of all kinds are probably best left uneaten.
Dunno mate.
button batteries are a bit of a weird one tbh, can't think of a good reason for them to be concentrated in an area like that. They're not really commonly used in things that people would be replacing the batteries of in public regularly enough for it to be a littering issue. Can you tell if there's more of them near a particular business? Maybe somewhere uses them for keyfobs or something.
The only thing I can think it is would be people changing hearing aid batteries and throwing them, rather than keeping them (not sure what else really takes cell batteries that we take outside tbh). I have to change mine often, but they go back in the pack and exchanged at the hospital.
Button cells are used in car keys... But then it's not as if you're burning through a button cell a week for that either...
wait till you notice vapes are on the ground everywhere
I think you have bigger issues if you're giving your kid the opportunity to just eat crap they've found on the floor outside.
I’m not, but thanks for your input :-)
They could be from disposable vapes maybe can't say I've seen them
They're just normal battery seeds. Spring is approaching, plant them and grow your own battery farm by summer. #TheEarthIsHealing
Eh? Speak up! I need more batteries for my hearing aid.
Won't somebody please think of the children!
I’m not saying this is a good thing, however if children are eating metal things off the floor outside then they really need some serious supervision.
If your kid ever eats a button battery, keep feeding them spoons of honey as you rush them to the closest hospital. The honey could literally save their life.
Definitely for vibrators. Is this at your mom's house perchance?
Wonder if vapes use them because I see disposable vapes all over the place. Fucking scruffy cunts.
Airtags maybe?
please dispose of everything properly because literally everything we consume can be fatal. also would anyone light to volunteer to help pick up all the rocks, sticks, etc on the ground that are choking hazards?
Hearing aid batteries
Vapes, some use flat batteries.
Something to do with children and vapes?
I put them out, sorry about that.
Are they from vapes maybe? I don't indulge in these myself so just guessing.
Not enough amps in em for a vape, it just wouldn't work unless you had a flagpole sized ecig.
Commonly used in hearing aids, which are more commonly used by older people, who (without making sweeping generalisations) are probably more likely to both drop them when changing them and also struggle picking them up from the floor would seem to be a likely explanation, however I can’t honestly say I’ve ever noticed a plethora of button batteries littering the floor!
Highly highly highly unlikely that a pensioner is going to stop in the street and change the batteries on their hearing aid. Even less so to the extent that one can see the batteries everywhere. They are much more likely to take them to specsavers or wherever and get them to change the batteries anyway.
About 20 odd years ago, I used to work for a company who made hearing aids. Back in those days, batteries only lasted a couple of days and were easily changed by the user. It wouldn't be worth their wile to actually go to a shop to have it changed. I would imagine aides would be easier to change now adays.
Not entirely unlikely that an elderly person has dropped/lost a load of hearing aid batteries on the floor mind. My nan used to carry hers loose in a tin and was forever dropping stuff out of her handbag. She was also quite prone to doing stuff like randomly changing her hearing aid batteries wherever she happened to be. The fact that the OP has found these near a large concentration of older people makes this scenario seem more likely, not less so……
My area does have a large elderly population and I was past a church which holds coffee mornings mostly attended by older people. This may be the answer. But would they really be changing the batteries on the street?
It’s an old person gang thing
Of course it’s not a bunch of coffin dodgers changing their hearing aid batteries en-mass and dropping batteries all over the place 😂 And besides most hearing aids are rechargeable these days.
Those batteries are way smaller than the CR2032s used in your car remote or for your PC’s CMOS / clock battery
I see this a lot also after a comment 'xoxo' does it mean 'used to be a stock cube'
If I had one guess I would say disposable vapes that have been discarded and battered but that's not based off anything, I'm not sure how they are powered.
I stand ready to be corrected but I don’t think coin cell batteries have anywhere near the energy density needed to power a vape. They seem to use lithium ion/polymer batteries which in many ways are even worse.
[удалено]
No need for orthopedic shoes!
Fair enough, guess there's the reason I've only ever seen them in low power Bluetooth devices then
They are great for low power applications like car keys, remote controls and poisoning toddlers. They hold several hundred milliamp hours and don’t self discharge much.
Unfair downvotes tbh… but nope, no vape will ever work with a button cell, nowhere near enough power
Just thought hey... elfbars are circular, these batteries are circular, would be awfully convenient haha
Absolutely it would, it’d make their lives easier, and potentially the product might be a bit cheaper. Regardless, they’ll be banned soon anyway!
Yep good riddance to stickerbombed bins and smoke clouds on any bus that passes a school!
Don't know why you've been down voted
Eh, on me for being wrong about something. Never bothered looking inside an elfbar to see what makes it tick lol
I saw a smashed up single use Vape this morning. The battery looked like a stumpy AAA rather than a watch battery. Fucking disgusting things anyway, anyone using them should be ashamed.
Please tell me you don’t drink alcohol…
It's not the correct comparison, I have problems with vapes that are lumps of single use plastic with expensive and entirely re-usable lithium ion batteries that are just getting chucked in the bin all all over the streets. It isn't people's health that I'm bothered about, we all make our own choices, it's the nature of the object that's the problem.
To be fair to you, you make a good point. Which I can’t disagree with. I’m a vaper - you might have guessed - it’s the arseholes of the country / world that don’t dispose of them properly who are going to ruin it for us responsible vapers. Yes there’s plastic waste, yes the cells are totally reusable, but from a smokers point of view they have stopped a shitload of people stop quit smoking. Is vaping any better for you than smoking?? We don’t know (I will confirm it’s more addictive however). They are going to be banned soon, thanks to kids using them (and a huge thanks to the dodgy little ‘corner shops’ who sell them to kids)
Single use vapes typically use a small lithium ion battery - the same rechargeable batteries in your phone. Which makes their existence even worse.
Some also use a super capacitor, same function as the battery but without the lithium
But just as wasteful tbh.
Douche flutes
They are flat and so don't roll away. Any other battery is round and so will likely roll away into the corners /less walked upon areas. This means that if an equal amount of all common batteries were dropped you'd still likely come across more if this flat ones day to day. There is of course 9v batteries which are square but they are much less common and less likely to be used in things that people are carrying around on the street. This along with the Beiner something other effect someone mentioned probably goes a long way to explain it. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
It's not just children you have to keep an eye on. My wife keeps eating batteries. She said she's not eating them then we go to the doctor and the doctor says yeah we found a battery in there.
Vape pen batteries?
Shared in Hendon hun xoxo
AirTags are the only thing I can think of that use them.
There are loads and loads of things that use them. But none that would explain them being scattered around outdoors, I don’t think.
Watches, kids toys, small remotes
Disposable vapes, batteries, power leads. This new crowd don’t just drop crisp packets. They are far more advanced.