Deadly novelty movie cups that could burn kids’ insides out recalled

DEADLY novelty cups containing lithium batteries sold to children at cinemas screening Disney’s Inside Out film have been recalled in Queensland and NSW.

A SOUVENIR movie cup has been recalled because of a risk that potentially deadly button batteries could be swallowed by children.

Parents have been warned to return the cups from the hit children’s movie Inside Out, sold at Event and Greater Union cinemas in NSW and Birch Carroll & Coyle cinemas in Queensland ­between June 17 and July 12.

The cup features flashing lights, powered by batteries under the lid. The recall ad, published in today’s The Daily Telegraph, says the battery cover “can be opened without the use of a tool or two simultaneous movements” — meaning children could pull out the batteries.

The cinemas had sold 15,000 cups nationally before the recall, when a further 15,000 were pulled from shelves.

Shan Hu of Cherrybrook in Sydney, 33, a mother to three-year-old Archer Judkins, said ­including batteries in a drinking cup seemed “silly” and unnecessary.

“It’s absolutely concerning. I think they’re making what should be a very simple product quite complicated,” she said.

A promotional cup for the "Inside Out" movie has been recalled as it has a battery in the purple lid which can be accidentally swallowed. Archer Judkins, 3 with the Inside Out cup and mum Shan Hu, 33 at Edward Bennet Park, Cherrybrook, NSW. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“I assume if it’s available for sale then it has been tested for safety and it’s right for consumption by toddlers”

Grant Hayward, 28, of Sydney’s Castle Hill, said his three-year-old son Gilbert loved going to the movies and he thought it would be obvious that “intuitively batteries and liquid don’t go together”.

“I assume if it’s available for sale then it has been tested for safety and it’s right for consumption by toddlers,” he said. “And it’s a concern if something has reached the point of sale and it’s obviously faulty.”

The dangers of battery

• When a  lithium button battery gets stuck in a  throat, the saliva triggers a chemical reaction that can  burn the oesophagus in as little as two hours.
• If a child has swallowed a battery, do not give them  food or drink, do not  induce vomiting.
•  Symptoms of  button battery ingestion may include coughing, drooling and discomfort.
• In Australia, an estimated 10 children present to an emergency department every week with an injury related to swallowing  a button battery.

‘Pre-emptive’

Event Cinemas yesterday said it had decided on a “pre-emptive­ voluntary recall” as a precautionary measure, adding there had been no reports­ of injuries linked to the cups.

“We sincerely apologise for our customers’ inconvenience and share their concern for any possible risk these possible incidents may cause,” it said.

Leo Lever swallowed a button batteryand nearly died (see below). Picture: Justin Lloyd

Button batteries are both a choking hazard and can cause internal burns, bleeding and even death.

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead treated 11 children for swallowing button batteries in the past 18 months, with five in the first six months of 2015 alone. Three children needed surgery last year and two this year — prompting a renewed warning for parents to be extra vigilant.

The Children’s Hospital head of ear, nose and throat surgery Dr John Curotta said parents should check electronic devices to make sure batteries were secured. “Button batteries are very dangerous,” he said. “For a child who has swallowed a battery, every minute matters.”

The recall comes a day after news broke of a three-month-old baby in far north Queensland who suffered severe spinal damage after swallowing a button battery.

Baby Oscar was lucky to survive after his spine corroded and his tiny vertebrae collapsed, The Courier Mailreported.

The dangers of lithium batteries were also highlighted last week in a Sunshine Coast coronial inquest into the death of four-and-a-half year olf Summer Steer.

Leo’s close brush with death

THE Lever family knows all too well the dangers of button batteries after young son Leo almost died after he swallowed one last year.

A then nine-month-old Leo spent 12 days in ­intensive care — eight of those under sedation — and a month being tube fed through his nose before he recovered.

Mum Francesca Lever, of Marrickville in Sydney, said she couldn’t believe a cinema chain would sell products using the dangerous devices.

“The impact these button batteries can cause is just huge and the fact that product designers are still designing things where they are so accessible to little fingers is just ridiculous,” she said.

“We had no idea of the dangers they can cause, that was our downfall.

“I would urge parents to be aware and be informed and have that knowledge.”

Originally published as Deadly novelty movie cups that could burn kids’ insides out recalled