What Happens If You Eat A Battery
Swallowing a battery is no joke. This video from the Missouri Poison Center uses humor, hot dogs, and even a song to drive home a serious point: batteries can cause real internal damage in a short amount of time.
In just two hours, a swallowed button battery can burn through tissue, as the video cleverly demonstrates using a hot dog and an X-ray.
If someone swallows a battery:
-
Stay calm.
-
Don’t induce vomiting.
-
Call the Missouri Poison Center immediately at 1-800-222-1222
🔋 For more battery prevention and first-aid tips, visit our batteries page on our website here!
Transcript with visual descriptions
Visual: Thumbnail with a pile of button batteries and the title “What happens if you eat a battery?”. The Missouri Poison Center logo is in the bottom right corner.
Sound: Upbeat, light-hearted instrumental music begins.
Visual: Person 1, wearing an orange shirt with black dinosaur silhouettes, is sitting at a kitchen table, smiling and holding a spoon over a bowl of AA batteries.
Visual: Person 2, wearing a blue “#Poison. Prevention” t-shirt, stands in a kitchen singing.
Person 2: Don’t eat batteries.
Visual: Person 2 stands in a futuristic-looking room with large, glowing batteries.
Person 2: They’re really not good for you.
Person 1: What?
Person 2: You know that Carter Vail guy just wrote a whole song. But let me show you what a battery can do, all right? This is a hot dog, okay? This is a battery.
Visual: A close-up of a hot dog with a button battery inserted into it. A pink arrow points to the battery.
Person 1: Yeah.
Visual: Person 2 is shown upside down over a hot dog, which is now sizzling and burning around the battery.
Person 2: You put it in the dog, and you wait two hours, and it burns right through the dog!
Visual: Person 2 stands in a blue room, holding up a picture of an x-ray.
Person 2: This is an x-ray.
Person 1: Oh.
Visual: A close-up of an X-ray of a chest showing a circular object lodged in the esophagus. A pink arrow points to it.
Person 2: This is a battery.
Person 1: No.
Person 2: And if you give it two hours, just what do you think that that battery will do to you? You’re cooked!
Visual: Three versions of Person 2 are dancing in the battery room.
Person 2: Don’t eat batteries, don’t, don’t eat batteries!
Person 1: Where’d they come from?
Person 2: Don’t eat batteries, don’t, don’t eat batteries! You’re not a branded rabbit with the boom, boom, boom.
Visual: The word “DOOM” is spelled out on the ground using button batteries.
Person 2: Eating batteries can spell your doom!
Visual: Person 1 back at the kitchen table shouting.
Sound: Shouts.
Person 2: Don’t eat batteries, don’t, don’t eat batteries!
Visual: Person 1 is crying while grabbing the batteries from his bowl.
Person 2: Don’t eat batteries, don’t, don’t eat batteries!
Person 1: I’m sorry, okay?!
AVO: If you swallow a battery, it’s important to stay calm. Don’t induce vomiting, and call the Missouri Poison Center right away.
Visual: White background with the Missouri Poison Center logo and phone number 1-800-222-1222. “Open 24/7!”
AVO: At 1-800-222-1222.
