Reese's Law now requires secured battery compartments in toys

The play

Button and coin batteries power a wide range of small toys and gadgets, remote controls, singing greeting cards, flameless candles, and small light-up toys, because the cells are compact and long-lasting. On 16 August 2022, H.R. 5313, titled Reese's Law, was signed into law as Public Law 117-171, according to the bill's own record on Congress.gov. The statute does not itself set technical specifications; it directs the Consumer Product Safety Commission to write a mandatory rule.

What the evidence says

Congress.gov's summary states the law requires CPSC to establish a safety standard for batteries that pose an ingestion hazard and for consumer products containing them, including a warning label describing the ingestion hazard and a battery compartment that eliminates or adequately reduces the risk of injury to children six years of age or younger. CPSC's own Button Cell/Coin Battery Information Center translates that mandate in plainer terms: toys with these batteries are now required to have a secure closure requiring a screwdriver, coin, or tool to open, and the page describes button and coin battery ingestion as sending thousands of children to emergency departments every year. The implementing rule, 16 CFR part 1263, incorporates the private standard ANSI/UL 4200A by reference as the technical requirement, according to its own text in the eCFR, with the safety requirement effective 23 October 2023 and the packaging warning label effective 21 September 2024.

Age fit and safety

The statute's own language ties the compartment-security requirement to children six years of age or younger, a wider band than the under-three scope used for small-parts choking rules, reflecting that older children can also pry open a compartment or swallow a loose cell. None of these three documents measures how much button-battery injury has actually changed since the rule took effect; each describes the requirement itself, not an outcome study.

What to look for

This is editorial guidance drawn from what the statute and rule require. On any toy, remote, or gadget using a button or coin battery, check that the compartment needs a tool, screwdriver, or coin to open, not a fingernail, and that a warning label appears on the product as the rule specifies. Because the rule applies going forward from its effective dates, an older device already in the house may not meet either requirement, which is a reason to check compartments on hand-me-down electronics as carefully as on anything newly purchased.

• Does the battery compartment require a tool to open, or can small fingers pry it loose?
• Is a warning label about ingestion visible on the product or its packaging?
• Would an adult in the house recognize the signs of a swallowed battery and know to seek immediate care?

Reese's Law converts a known hazard into a specific compartment and labeling requirement rather than a general caution, and the statute's and CPSC's own wording, not a product's marketing claims, is what defines what secure is now supposed to mean.