Provide any additional information or data that you think may be useful for informing the ACCC’s recommendation to the Minister.
Diabetes Queensland welcomes the opportunity to add our support to increasing the safety of equipment containing button batteries.
While the Taskforce is examining batteries from the aspect of child safety, Diabetes Queensland would like to contribute a couple of points on medical technology which relies on button batteries, and the people who need that equipment.
Blood glucose monitors are an everyday and essential part of diabetes management, and rely on button batteries. They are required for regular use, and their coverage under the proposed standards would improve child safety.
Diabetes Queensland would support the phased introduction of mandatory standards to ensure child resistant battery doors in the interests of safety.
However, 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.
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.
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.
Diabetes Queensland 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.