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| Coin cell safety improvement a world first in Australia |
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| rsjsouza:
--- Quote from: igendel on December 23, 2020, 05:54:09 pm ---"Can't parents just watch over their children", that's a Shibboleth for detecting people who are not parents. Why, it's as easy as writing bug-free code on the first shot. While doing all the other everyday chores of course. --- End quote --- :-DD All the toys that used coin cells here at my house had screws on their compartment. You can have all the theories or best guesses about such legislation, but it surely gave us a massive peace of mind that the cells wouldn't pop out at the most inconvenient time or completely out of sight. By the way, try to keep 100% of your attention for 100% of time with twins. Kids have all the time in the world to figure out things, and a simple compartment door with no specific locking mechanism would be surely opened by them. Besides, this phase lasts until 2 or 2-1/2 years old, to which you are able to teach them better to not put everything in their mouths. By the age of 3 my girls were already working with the screwdriver and loved it! Reversing the tables, if you are an adult that cannot be bothered to buy a set of precision screwdrivers or ask someone to do it, you shouldn't buy these toys. The spring on the batteries compartment would surely be another problem in case these are opened unexpectedly - batteries flying everywhere. For the loose screw argument, that makes sense but there's a reason why you do this away from kids or at the time they are napping - being an item that is replaced only so often, that is a doable procedure. For the other things that need to be opened and connected more often, such locking mechanism surely irritates me. I've had the medicine containers frustrate me a few times, but these were also effective during this hand to mouth phase (on the occasional dropped container). Also, several US plugs can have a very tight fit (especially the more commercial/industrial looking types) and they are relegated to be used in extension cords and other applications that are connected for long periods. I never used the chubby european plugs/outlets (UK, Germany) but, if they are hard to insert/pull as they look, then no thanks. However, I find it ironic how the US bashing about their "unsafe" plugs is the norm in these types of discussions, but in a somewhat similar concern the number of incidents is brought up as a reason to ridicule this. Last time I checked the number of electrocutions was rather small... All in all, I think that bringing this to the table generates the discussion and, at least with the already severely regulated toy market, this is just one more fib to add. |
| CatalinaWOW:
Had an interesting thought last night about a possibly better way to make the coin or button cells safe. Just coat them with a self sealing elastomer. Which requires battery compartments to have appropriate prongs to penetrate the elastomer, a not particularly challenging problem - except for already fielded designs. These can be used by application of a bit of sandpaper. This mitigates the hazard which is two fold. The electrolysis and its byproducts which occurs in the gut. And since the battery is not shorted and run down, it is unlikely to leak during its passage through the gut eliminating the second part of the hazard. This solution also mitigates the risk of batteries before installation in the various applications and old batteries that didn't make it into a safe container before disposal. There is still the problem of mechanical blockage of the gut, but that is no more severe than any of the myriad of other swallowable size objects in the world from pebbles to game pieces to ..... |
| james_s:
I've actually seen quite a few of those screwed shut battery covers missing the screw, with a piece of tape holding them shut instead which defeats the purpose. At the very least they should have a captive screw. Either way it's pointless, it should be obvious to anyone here that a small child can operate a screwdriver easily as most of us in engineering probably got in trouble at least a few times as young kids for taking things apart. It took a number of years before I had perfected the art of putting them back together. |
| tooki:
--- Quote from: james_s on December 23, 2020, 04:56:27 am ---I hate those screwed shut battery compartments, I was just talking to my friend about that the other day, it had never occurred to me that it was some kind of a legal requirement. I also hate "child proof" packaging, what a joke, I still remember when I was about 4 years old my grandmother used to ask me to open her medication bottles for her because she had difficulty with the "child proof" caps while my small nimble hands could open them without difficulty. --- End quote --- When I was a very little kid, my mom had a few years where she was getting really bad migraines. (Not my fault, I swear!) Anyhow, one time, my mom got a migraine and was too delirious with pain to negotiate the childproof cap. I couldn’t get it open, so she grabbed a hammer and smashed the bottle to smithereens and then pulled some pills out of the wreckage to take. 😂 (I don’t remember what kind of cap it was, i.e. whether it relied more on adult dexterity or hand strength, but I couldn’t get it open. How they expect the elderly to open them is beyond me.) |
| KaneTW:
I find UK plugs to be overkill (a fuse _in the plug_ is too much, and they're unpleasantly pointy and heavy). Out of all plugs I've used, I've found Schuko to be the most comfortable. Secure fit, rounded prongs, ground easily accessible and guaranteed to make first contact. US plugs are by far my least favorite -- flimsy, exposed metal that you could easily touch with a finger, etc. |
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