Provide any additional information or data that you think may be useful for informing the ACCC’s recommendation to the Minister.
Diabetes NSW & ACT would like to contribute to the Taskforce’s assessment on button battery safety.
As an organisation representing people living with diabetes, Diabetes NSW & ACT is familiar with the use of button batteries in medical devices, particularly blood glucose monitors.
Diabetes NSW & ACT welcomes the Taskforce is examination of these batteries from the perspective of child safety, and would like to contribute a couple of points pertaining to their use in medical technology.
Blood glucose monitors are an everyday and essential part of regular diabetes management. While Diabetes NSW & ACT supports the phased introduction of mandatory standards to ensure child resistant battery doors, it is important that the design does not impede their efficient use by those with poor fine motor skills, such as some elderly people and those with arthritis. Both age and comorbidities such as arthritis have a strong correlation with diabetes.
It is also important that the design changes do not dramatically impact the cost of equipment.
Roche has introduced child resistant battery doors on Its Accu-Chek products, in a move we applaud, showing that the technology is able to practically incorporate the safety requirements.
The design should be clearly explained in packaging, and able to be used easily and safely by those who need to. A tool used to open the compartment would also need to consider these same factors.
Diabetes NSW & ACT also supports the use of warnings on packaging, and would like to see the provision of advice on safe battery disposal on the same packaging.