By now many of you has seen the surveillance video from a couple of weeks back when an e-cigarette exploded in a man’s pants pocket as he approached the counter in an Shell Gas Station in Owensboro.
The man ended up suffering from second-degree burns after he says, an electronic battery exploded in his pocket. The video captured him later running outside, struggling to remove his pants, before a man douses him with a fire extinguisher.
As a safety and risk management professional with a bit of a sense of humor my first reaction was that this brings new meaning to the term, “liar, liar pants on fire.” But after watching this man catch fire, I quickly realized that this isn’t a laughing matter. As a result, I am pretty sure that there are several of you out there wondering just how safe these new age cigarette?
Despite the fact that e-cigarettes have been sold for over nine years now, there is very little governmental oversight to the safety of the product (Photo from www.vaping360.com)
E-cigarettes were first introduced into the market back in 2007, and since then they have experienced rapid growth in popularity world-wide. According to Fortune magazine sales of e-cigs in the United States, estimated are now be a $1.5 billion market, and is set to grow 24.2 percent per year through 2018, according to new projections from Research and Markets.
Millions of people worldwide are now using these e-cigarettes all across the world, as a safe alternative resource to help people kick their nicotine habit from tobacco usage. Most of these users have opted to use these e-cigarettes in an effort to live a healthier life, but now the question is, “just how safe are these modern devices and are they really mini ticking time bombs?”
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, people reported more than two dozen incidents of explosions and fires caused by e-cigarettes between 2009 and 2014.
Linked to lithium-ion batteries
Many of these incidents are being linked to the vaporizer’s lithium-ion battery. According to reports from either overcharging, manufacturing defects and punctures can cause it to overheat, which can trigger an explosion.
Many e-cigarettes use lithium batteries due to their ability to store large amounts of energy in a compact amount of space but this is what poses the risk of fire and explosion. According to some the lithium battery has been described as the ‘mini-bomb ticking time bomb in your pocket,’ due to its known ability to spontaneously ignite.
E-cigarettes have the same fuel capability as gasoline and are the same lithium-ion batteries found in many of the hover boards which have also caused dozens of fires just since Christmas. Hover board explosions in the past few months have quickly have prompted many colleges and airlines to ban them, as the Consumer Product Safety Commission CPSC are now thoroughly investigating them.
Yet these e-cigarette explosions are getting far less attention it seems.
It’s been estimated that 80 percent of e-cigarette explosions happen during charging. One case study, from the American Journal of Medical Case Reports, looked into a February 2015 incident in New Jersey, and could not find a specific cause for the explosion that took place when the e-cigarette was stored in the user’s pocket, however, they theorize “that poor design, use of low-quality materials, manufacturing flaws and defects, and improper use and handling can all contribute to a condition known as ‘thermal runaway,’ whereby the internal battery temperature can increase to the point of causing a battery fire or explosion.”
The vaping industry was very quick to point out after the incident in Owensboro that the explosions from e-cigarettes are very rare, which is true when you compare the incident rate to the number of users. In a statement, in a WLKY-TV report the American Vaping Association said: “When charged and used under proper conditions, vapor product batteries pose no more of a fire risk than similar lithium-ion batteries that are used in cell phones and laptops.”
As a true safety and risk management consultant I would counter by saying, “that may be true, but tell that to the man in Owensboro or all the other victims that face reconstructive surgery and long expensive recovery after suffering from burns to their face, arms, legs and torso after an e-cigarette blew up on them.”
The internet is full of incidents and gruesome pictures. Even one man in England was hospitalized after his e cigarette spilled hot liquid nicotine down his throat, burning a hole in his right lung.
The airline industries allows passengers to carry e-cigarettes with them onto planes, but are not allowed to charge their batteries during flight. The Federal Aviation Administration also prohibits passengers from packing e-cigarettes in their checked luggage after instances in which e-cigarettes have set suitcases on fire.
Too little oversight
Despite the fact that e-cigarettes have been sold for over nine years now, there is very little governmental oversight to the safety of the product. The mission of the CPSC is to reduce the risk of injuries and deaths from consumer products by developing, issuing and enforcing safety mandatory standards; they haven’t touched this product.
That’s because e-cigarettes are considered tobacco products, and therefore fall under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has yet to start cracking down on the vaping industry but after four years of work, the agency finally sent a final draft of regulations to the White House for approval in October, and that’s where it currently sits.
While several product liability lawsuits have been filed against the retailers and wholesalers, such claims is just merely the cost of doing business and is built into the price in the vaping industry. Additional governmental regulations are needed to enforce the necessary changes to better protect the consumers which include many of America’s youth.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention they found that that e-cigarette use among high school and middle school students tripled between 2013 and 2014. More than 2 million high schoolers and 450,000 middle schoolers were smoking the battery-powered vaporizers.
What’s scary is neither the low risk of explosion nor the concern about the long term health effects of e-cigarettes have discouraged their growing popularity especially amongst the youth, making it crucial that governmental regulations be imposed on the vaping industry as soon as possible.
In the interim while we wait on our government to take a stance, the vaping industry advocates that users should always use compatible batteries and chargers; and avoid battery contact with metal objects such as coins, keys or jewelry.
With that I say good luck as a consumer, because as for now it’s still buyer beware– because it still may be … “Buyer, Buyer …Pants on Fire!”
Be Safe My Friends.
Keven Moore works in risk management services. He has a bachelor’s degree from University of Kentucky, a master’s from Eastern Kentucky University and 25-plus years of experience in the safety and insurance profession. He lives in Lexington with his family and works out of both the Lexington and Northern Kentucky offices. Keven can be reached at kmoore@roeding.com.
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