Button Batteries and Magnets in Toys: What the Federal Rules Require

Two small objects account for a category of injury that a choking warning does not describe. A coin cell battery does not need to block an airway to do harm. Lodged in the esophagus, it burns through tissue, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission says that can happen in as little as two hours. Two small, strong magnets swallowed separately can find each other through the wall of the intestine and hold on.

Both hazards now sit under specific federal rules, and both rules have an exemption for toys that sends you back to a different standard. This guide reads the three documents that matter, in the order a parent actually meets them: the toy standard, Reese's Law for everything else in the house, and the 2022 magnet rule. It also covers what each one leaves out.

What a "button cell or coin battery" means, legally

The definition in 16 CFR Part 1263 is geometric, not chemical: a single-cell battery with a diameter greater than its height. That covers the flat silver cells in a kitchen scale and the larger lithium coins, such as the ones in car key fobs and many light-up toys. AA and AAA batteries are out, because they are taller than they are wide. Zinc-air cells, the kind used in hearing aids, are excluded from the rule by name.

The difference between cell types matters for how badly things go. CPSC's 2024 rulemaking notes that lithium coin cells are a particular chemical-burn threat because they carry a higher voltage and capacity than non-lithium cells. Inside the body, the moist tissue of the digestive tract completes a circuit between the battery's terminals, and the current generates hydroxide at the contact point. That is the burn.

The toy rule: ASTM F963, section 4.25

A toy, in federal terms, is anything designed, manufactured or marketed as a plaything for a child under 14. Every one of them has to meet ASTM F963, which 16 CFR Part 1250 makes mandatory. The current eCFR text of Part 1250 incorporates the 2023 edition, F963-23.

Section 4.25 of that standard covers battery-operated toys. Two clauses carry the ingestion hazard:

Section 4.25.4.1 covers how accessible the batteries are on toys for children under three, whatever size the batteries are.
Section 4.25.4.2 covers any battery small enough to fit inside the small parts cylinder, which includes every button and coin cell. Such a battery must not be accessible without a "common household tool."

The 2023 edition defined that phrase for the first time: straight-blade or Phillips screwdrivers, pliers, coins, or other objects commonly found in most households. A compartment can also use a specialty fastener, such as a Torx or hex screw, provided the driver comes with the toy along with instructions. Accessibility is judged with jointed test probes sized to a child's finger (one for toys graded 0 to 36 months, another for 37 to 96 months), and the compartment has to stay closed after the standard's use-and-abuse tests, which include drops, torque and tension.

Two things follow for a parent. First, "requires a coin" counts as secure under the toy standard. A twist-lock battery door that opens with a coin edge passes. Second, the test is of the toy as manufactured. A cracked battery door, a lost screw or a compartment that was never screwed back after a battery change is outside anything the standard can promise.

For the choking side of that same cylinder, which is a separate test with its own limits, see what the small parts test actually checks.

Reese's Law: the rule for everything that is not a toy

Most of the button cells in a home with a baby are not in toys at all. They are in the television remote, the digital thermometer, the kitchen scale, the key fob, the flameless candle and the greeting card that plays a song. Until 2023, none of those had to secure a battery compartment.

Reese's Law, enacted in 2022, changed that. It directed CPSC to write a mandatory rule, and CPSC adopted UL 4200A-2023 as the standard, codified at 16 CFR Part 1263. According to CPSC's business guidance, the requirements are:

A compartment holding a replaceable button or coin cell must need either a tool or at least two independent and simultaneous hand movements to open, such as pressing and sliding at once.
The compartment must not release the battery during the standard's use-and-abuse testing.
The product's packaging must carry an ingestion warning, the product itself must carry one where practicable, and the manual must repeat it.

The effective date in the regulation is October 23, 2023. CPSC then granted enforcement discretion, so in practice the requirements apply to products manufactured or imported after March 19, 2024. Warning labels on packages of the batteries themselves were required for anything made or imported after September 21, 2024.

Note what that timeline means for a house that is already furnished. A remote control made in 2021 is legal to keep using and was never required to meet any of this. The rule applies to new products, not to the drawer.

The toy exemption, and why it matters

Part 1263 contains one exemption worth reading word for word. Any product designed, manufactured or marketed as a plaything for a child under 14 is exempt, provided it complies with the battery accessibility and labeling requirements of the toy standard. Toys are held to section 4.25 of F963, not to UL 4200A.

The two standards are not identical. UL 4200A accepts a two-motion latch that needs no tool at all, while F963 wants a tool for button cells but counts a coin as one. In August 2024, CPSC published a proposed rule to add stronger button-battery requirements to the toy standard, consistent with Reese's Law and with international standards for electric toys. The proposal names the kinds of toy in scope: light-up toys, talking dolls, remote-control vehicles, stuffed animals, musical toys and learning tablets. As of this writing, the eCFR text of Part 1250 contains sections on water beads and neck floats but no separate button-battery section, so that proposal has not become a requirement.

How often toys are the source

CPSC's 2024 proposal counted the incidents specifically tied to toys. From 2016 through 2022, staff estimated about 4,500 emergency department visits involving a child getting a button or coin cell out of a toy. In an estimated 81 percent, the child swallowed the battery or put it in their mouth. An estimated 92 percent of the children were between six months and five years old, and 16 percent were admitted to hospital. Separately, CPSC's own case records for the same period held one death and 46 non-fatal incidents tied to toy battery compartments.

Recalls still happen under the existing rule. CPSC's button battery information page currently lists recalls of light-up children's toys from two companies, each for violating the mandatory toy standard on battery ingestion.

Magnets: two rules, split by who the product is for

A single small magnet usually passes through. The danger comes from two or more, or one magnet and a piece of metal. They attract each other across loops of intestine, pinch the tissue between them and can cause perforation, blockage or a twisted bowel. CPSC's 2022 rule records the deaths of a 20-month-old who swallowed magnets from a toy construction set and a 2-year-old who swallowed several magnets. It also notes that symptoms can look like an ordinary stomach bug, which delays diagnosis.

Toys: F963 again

Magnets in toys have been covered by ASTM F963 since 2007. The standard's test combines size and strength. A "hazardous magnet" is one that fits entirely in the small parts cylinder and has a flux index of 50 kG²mm² or more. A toy may not contain a loose hazardous magnet as sold, and may not release one after use-and-abuse testing that includes soaking in water, repeated attaching and detaching, drops, torque, tension, impact and compression.

One carve-out applies. A "magnetic/electrical experimental set" for children 8 and older, meaning a kit that combines magnetism and electricity for experiments, needs only warning labels and is exempt from the performance tests. That is a science kit for older children, and it is exactly the kind of thing that ends up on the floor of a shared bedroom.

Everything else: 16 CFR Part 1262

The second rule covers magnet products sold for entertainment, jewelry, mental stimulation or stress relief, which in practice means adult desk sets of small ball magnets and magnetic jewelry. For anything manufactured after October 21, 2022, each loose or separable magnet small enough to fit in the cylinder must have a flux index below 50. Toys under Part 1250 are exempt, because F963 already covers them.

The numbers in the rulemaking explain why the threshold was set there. CPSC staff found that the 5 mm neodymium spheres most often involved in ingestions typically measure 300 to 400 kG²mm², several times the limit. Ferrite "rock" magnets can exceed 700. CPSC estimated 23,700 emergency department-treated magnet ingestions from 2010 through 2020. For products within the rule's scope, the annual estimate fell from about 2,300 before an earlier 2014 magnet rule to about 1,300 while it was announced and in force, then rose back to about 2,300 a year after the Tenth Circuit vacated it in November 2016.

The 2022 rule was challenged in court as well. On March 3, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit denied the industry petition in Magnetsafety.org v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, holding that the rule is supported by substantial evidence. Part 1262 stands.

What the rules do not cover

Read together, the rules leave four gaps a parent can close.

Products made before the rules. A pre-2024 remote, scale or thermometer, and a set of strong desk magnets bought before late 2022, were never required to meet either rule. The age of a product matters more than its category.

Damage after sale. Every test here is on a new product. A battery door held shut with tape is an open compartment.

Loose spares. CPSC's guidance is to put non-conductive tape over a used cell's terminals as soon as it comes out, then take it to a battery-collection point. A spent cell in a kitchen bowl is still a hazard.

Products an older sibling owns. A science kit graded 8 and up, or a magnet set sold to adults, is legal and compliant, and its magnets can still end up in a baby's hand. Age grading is a safety classification rather than a skill rating, and toys by development stage covers why the youngest child in the house sets the rules for the floor.

A five-minute check of the house

Work room by room with a small screwdriver:

Find every product with a button or coin cell. Remotes, key fobs, scales, thermometers, flameless candles, musical greeting cards and light-up toys are the usual list.
For toys, confirm each battery door needs a screwdriver or coin to open, and that the screw is present and tight.
For everything else, check whether the compartment is screwed shut or needs two simultaneous motions. A door that slides open with one thumb should be kept out of reach, or taped shut until the product is replaced.
Store spare cells in their original packaging, up high.
Look for loose small magnets, especially from an older child's kit or an adult desk set, and count them back into their container after use.

CPSC's safety page also recommends checking toys already in the home for secure battery compartments, and the CPSC recall database is searchable by brand and product name. For the toys that tend to get used most in the first year and a half, none of which contain a battery at all, see the best first toys.

Questions people actually ask

Is a battery door that opens with a coin safe enough for a toy?

It meets the federal toy standard. ASTM F963-23 requires button and coin cells in toys to be inaccessible without a common household tool, and it lists coins in that definition alongside screwdrivers and pliers. A screw closure is the more secure of the two, and CPSC's consumer guidance tells parents to look for screw closures on products with accessible button cells.

Does Reese's Law apply to toys?

Not directly. 16 CFR Part 1263 exempts anything designed or marketed as a plaything for a child under 14, provided it meets the battery accessibility and labeling requirements of the toy standard at 16 CFR Part 1250. Toys are held to section 4.25 of ASTM F963 instead. CPSC proposed stronger button-battery requirements for toys in August 2024, and that proposal has not been added to Part 1250.

Are the remote controls and key fobs already in my house covered?

Only if they were made recently. The Reese's Law requirements apply to products manufactured or imported after March 19, 2024, under CPSC's enforcement discretion. Older products were never required to secure their compartments, so check each one by hand.

Why are magnets more dangerous when there is more than one?

Two or more strong magnets, or one magnet and a piece of metal, can attract each other through the walls of the intestine and trap tissue between them. CPSC's 2022 magnet rule describes perforation, blockage and twisting of the bowel, and records deaths of children under three from swallowing multiple magnets.

Are magnetic building tiles covered by the same rules as desk magnet sets?

No, they fall under a different rule. Magnetic toys for children under 14 fall under ASTM F963, which bars a loose small magnet with a flux index of 50 or more and tests that magnets stay enclosed through drops, soaking, torque and tension. Desk sets and magnetic jewelry fall under 16 CFR Part 1262, which sets the same flux index limit. Cracked tiles are the gap either way, and how the small parts test works explains why a toy is only tested new.

Sources

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