What do y'all think of the new hearing aid battery packagng?

[ShazzieB]

According to what I've been reading, a (relativel) new law requiring hearing aid battery packaging to be childproof went into effect a year and a half ago, but I didn't hear about it at the time and didn't run into it until just recently, because I was working off of a stockpile of batteries that I had bought prior to that time and didn't run out again until recently. Now that I'm having to deal with it, I'm gobsmacked at how terrible it is!

I understand that this law was passed because a child somewhere died due to swallowing a button battery. That's tragic, and I support the general principle of making things child safe. But surely there is a way to do that without making them adult proof as well! Not only are scissors required to liberate a battery, but the plastic packaging is so hard and stiff that it's ridiculously difficult to cut through, not to mention hard on scissors! I'm going to have to get a pair of special, ultra strong shears for this task before I ruin all my scissors.

Also, once I do manage to cut through it, I end up with pieces of very stiff plastic that are so sharp and pointy that I have to be superb careful to avoid stabbing myself with them. I'm amazed that I haven't cut my fingers on it yet.

Like I said, I understand about wanting to keep children safe, but I'm a 75 year old woman whose only child is 40 years old and child free. There is no need for small children to be protected from my hearing aid batteries, because no small children ever set foot in my house.

To add insult to the constant fear of injury, I have very small hands with stubby fingers, and my grip is not very strong. Because of this, I always ask for non-childproof caps on my prescription bottles, and I have trouble opening any kind of jar or bottle without using a special gadget. This hearing aid battery packaging is the last straw!

I imagine this is not new news to most other hearing aid wearers at this point, but it is to me. I'm posting this mainly to vent, but if anyone has ant pointers on how to deal with this stuff without slicing my fingers to ribbons, I'd love to hear it!