Health Library

Dry cell battery poisoning

Batteries - dry cell

Dry cell batteries are a common type of power source. Tiny dry cell batteries are sometimes called button batteries.

This article discusses the harmful effects from swallowing a dry cell battery (including button batteries) or breathing in large amounts of dust or smoke from burning batteries.

This article is for information only. DO NOT use it to treat or manage an actual poison exposure. If you or someone you are with has an exposure, call the local emergency number (such as 911), or the local poison control center can be reached directly by calling the national toll-free Poison Help hotline (1-800-222-1222) from anywhere in the United States.

I Would Like to Learn About:

Poisonous Ingredient

Acidic dry cell batteries contain:

• Manganese dioxide
• Ammonium chloride

Alkaline dry cell batteries contain:

• Sodium hydroxide
• Potassium hydroxide

Lithium dioxide dry cell batteries contain:

• Manganese dioxide

Where Found

Dry cell batteries are used to power a variety of different items. Small dry cell batteries may be used to power watches and calculators, while larger ones (for example, size "D" batteries) can be used in items such as flashlights.

Always keep all batteries out of reach of children:

• Store button batteries and any devices that use them out of reach and out of sight.
• Avoid leaving spare batteries on tables, counters, or in drawers that children can open.
• Make sure battery compartments close tightly and require a screwdriver or tool to open.

Symptoms

Symptoms depend on the type and size of the battery, and whether or not the battery has leaked chemicals.

Symptoms of acidic dry cell battery poisoning include:

• Decreased mental ability
• Irritation or burns in the mouth
• Muscle cramps
• Slurred speech
• Swelling of the lower legs, ankles, or feet
• Spastic walk
• Tremor
• Weakness

Symptoms that can result from breathing in large amounts of the acidic battery fumes, or contents, dust, and smoke from burning batteries include:

• Bronchial irritation and cough
• Decreased mental ability
• Difficulty sleeping
• Headache
• Muscle cramps
• Numbness of the fingers or toes
• Itching skin
• Pneumonia (from irritation and blockage of the airways)
• Slurred speech
• Spastic walk
• Weakness in the legs

Symptoms of alkaline battery poisoning may include:

• Abdominal pain
• Breathing difficulty from throat swelling
• Diarrhea
• Drooling
• Rapid drop in blood pressure (shock)
• Throat pain
• Vomiting

Home Care

Immediate emergency treatment is needed after a battery is swallowed.

Get medical help right away. DO NOT make a person throw up unless told to do so by poison control or a health care provider. Immediately give the person water or milk, unless instructed otherwise by poison control or a provider.

If the person breathed in fumes from the battery, immediately move them to fresh air.

If the battery broke and contents touched the eyes or skin, wash the area with water for 15 minutes.

Before Calling Emergency

Get the following information:

• Person's age, weight, and condition
• Type of battery
• Time it was swallowed
• Amount swallowed

Poison Control

The local poison control center can be reached directly by calling the national toll-free Poison Help hotline (1-800-222-1222) from anywhere in the United States. This national hotline will let you talk to experts in poisoning. They will give you further instructions.

This is a free and confidential service. All local poison control centers in the United States use this national number. You should call if you have any questions about poisoning or poison prevention. It does NOT need to be an emergency. You can call for any reason, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can get online poison help now at Poisonhelp.org. Just enter the product, poison, or medicine to get expert help. Also, you can call the National Button Battery Ingestion Hotline (800-498-8666).

What to Expect at the Emergency Room

Take the battery with you to the hospital, if possible.

The provider will measure and monitor the person's vital signs, including temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure.

The person will need immediate x-rays to make sure the battery is not stuck in the esophagus. Most swallowed batteries that pass through the esophagus will pass in the stool without complication. However, if a battery gets stuck in the esophagus, it can cause a hole in the esophagus very quickly. Symptoms will be treated as appropriate.

Tests that may be done include:

• Blood and urine tests
• Bronchoscopy -- camera placed down the throat to see burns in the airways and lungs
• Chest x-ray
• Endoscopy -- camera placed down the throat to check for burns in the esophagus and stomach
• X-rays to look for the battery

Treatment may include:

• Breathing support, including tube through the mouth into the lungs and connected to a breathing machine (ventilator)
• Fluids through a vein (by IV)
• Medicine to treat the effects of the poison and other symptoms

Outlook (Prognosis)

How well a person does depends on the amount of poison swallowed and how quickly treatment was received. The faster a person gets medical help, the better the chance for recovery. Full recovery is often possible if treated quickly.

Serious problems are most often seen following industrial accidents. Most household exposures (such as licking some liquid from a leaking battery or swallowing a button battery) are minor. If a large battery does not pass through the intestinal tract within a limited period of time and is causing bowel blockage or threatens to leak, a surgical procedure with general anesthesia may be needed.

References

Goodloe JM, Soulek J. Foreign Bodies. In: Walls RM, ed. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 51.

Manfredi MA. Caustic ingestion and foreign bodies. In: Wyllie R, Hyams JS, Kay M, eds. Pediatric Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 7th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2026:chap 18.

Meehan TJ. Care of the poisoned patient. In: Walls RM, ed. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 135.

National Capital Poison Center website. Poison control button battery ingestion triage and treatment guideline. www.poison.org/battery/guideline. Updated June 2018. Accessed November 26, 2025.

Nelson LS, Calello DP. Acute poisoning. In: Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 96.

Theobald JL, Corcoran JN. Poisoning. In: Kliegman RM, St. Geme JW, Blum NJ, et al, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 22nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2025:chap 94.

Review Date: 10/14/2025  

Reviewed By: Jesse Borke, MD, CPE, FAAEM, FACEP, Attending Physician at Kaiser Permanente, Orange County, CA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, for Health Content Provider (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is an independent audit to verify that A.D.A.M. follows rigorous standards of quality and accountability. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial policy, editorial process and privacy policy. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics. This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

© 1997- 2026 A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.