US safety agency urges better battery safety after Samsung's Note 7

Samsung took the right steps in figuring out what went wrong with the Galaxy Note 7, the top US safety agency said Tuesday as it called for the rest of the industry to set better safety standards for batteries.

Elliot Kaye, chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in a statement the technology industry needs to “modernize and improve the safety standards for lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics and also stay ahead of new power sources that will inevitably come along and replace these.”

That includes putting more safeguards in place during the design and manufacturing stages to make sure batteries are safe, Kaye said.

The CPSC is working with Samsung to urge the industry to reexamine standards for batteries in smartphones, and this year, the organization’s technical staff will “assess the state of high-density battery technology, innovations in the marketplace, gaps in safety standards, and the research and regulatory activities in other countries,” he added.

https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/us-safety-agency-cpsc-battery-safety-samsung-galaxy-note-7/