Tag Archives: exploding e-cigarettes

Another thing to worry about with e-cigs — sometimes they literally explode in your face

ecigarette explosion
Car seat after e-cig battery exploded.

I saw two stories within a few days of one another of two separate guys — one in Georgia and the other in Florida — in comas after their e-cigarettes exploded in their faces.

It sounds funny, but it’s not when people end up severely burned and put into comas. I found a bunch of stories and photos on Google about e-cigarette explosions or fires started by e-cigarette batteries. These are not isolated incidents.  But, these two latest explosions literally left two people near death.

The first was in Cobb County, Georgia, in September. A guy was left with a “dime-sized hole” in his mouth and had to be put into a medically induced coma with severe burns. The second was a couple of weeks later in Naples, Fla. A 21-year-old guy was left with severe burns to his face and neck and likewise also had to be placed into a coma after his e-cig exploded.

23876755_SA
fire started by exploding e-cig battery.

I did a bit of Googling and found another major burn incident. This was a California woman who was injured in 2013 when her e-cigarette exploded. This story is about a jury awarding her a $1.9 million settlement over her injuries.

I don’t know the brands for the latest incidents, but the 2013 incident burning the California woman was a brand called VapCigs.

Ah, here we go — VapCigs are made cheaply in China.

This is yet another issue with e-cigarettes. Many brands are actually cheaply manufactured in China, where safety standards and regulations are notoriously lax. I’m wondering how many other accidents and explosions there have been that didn’t result in major injuries. That’s not even getting into the hundreds of poisoning cases that have occurred from kids drinking from the vials of nicotine that are part of using e-cigarettes (there have also been people poisoned by simply spilling this nicotine juice onto their skin.) And e-cigs remain wholly and utterly unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration.