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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday May 17 2018, @05:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the i-thought-this-only-happened-in-cartoons dept.

El Reg reports

A forensics report has reported the first known death from the use of electronic cigarettes after a Florida man was killed when his device exploded and drove itself into his cranium.

Tallmadge D'Elia was vaping at home on May 5 when the vaping device, manufactured by Philippines-based Smok-E Mountain, exploded. An investigation by the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner's office found the explosion fired two pieces of the vaping device into his head, causing death by "projectile wound of head".

D'Elia also suffered burns to 80 per cent of his body, the ABC News reports,[1] after the explosion caused a fire in his house. Firefighters found his lifeless body when they broke in to tackle the blaze.

A representative from Smok-E Mountain said that the problem was most likely a battery issue, or a problem with the atomizer D'Elia had in his mouth. It said the company had had problems with people cloning their devices and using bad batteries.

While D'Elia's death is a first, injuries from electronic cigarettes are surprisingly common. A report last year by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency found that between January 2009 and December 31, 2016 there were 195 incidents where vape pens overheated or exploded, leading to 133 acute injuries to users, 38 or which were described as "severe".

[1] Astounding use of whitespace in the page's source code.

Additional local coverage from Tampa Bay Times:
Autopsy: Vape pen explosion fatally wounded St. Petersburg man and St. Pete man is first U.S. vaping death. Are e-cigarettes safe?.


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by TheGratefulNet on Thursday May 17 2018, @05:51PM (5 children)

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Thursday May 17 2018, @05:51PM (#680794)

    HOW many, again? EVERYBODY PANIC!

    oh wait, its noise level. huh.

    while poor batteries are often a cause of danger, the numbers here are so far below the noise, I can't see how anyone can say its 'common'.

    or is 'non-zero' the new value we give to 'surprisingly common'?

    --
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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by SomeGuy on Thursday May 17 2018, @06:55PM

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Thursday May 17 2018, @06:55PM (#680832)

    or is 'non-zero' the new value we give to 'surprisingly common'?

    Yes.

    I'm guessing you don't watch TV news.

    YouCantBeTooSafeThinkOfTheChildrenPollyWannaCracker!

  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:54PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:54PM (#680882)

    Given a large enough population, even extremely unlikely events happen almost continuously, and are thus common. The problem is thinking that "unlikely" and "common" exist on the same spectrum, when they're actually on semi-orthogonal axes, related by the size of the population.

    Also, let this be a lesson to vapers everywhere - always hold your e-cig by the mouthpiece so that any (improbable-but-common) explosions drive shards *away* from you, rather than into your brain.

  • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:59PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:59PM (#680885)

    I dunno. I bought a new mod a few weeks back. It was a Smok mod. I plugged it into the USB port on my computer and it promptly went up in flames. Tried to take it back, but apparently that doesn't represent a manufacturing defect. They told me that you're not supposed to plug in USB under any circumstances (even when the manual says to do so for firmware upgrades).

    I'd thought that all this stuff was hysteria until then. Now I'm not so sure. New mod, new tank, new coil, new batteries, new everything, and nobody considers this a manufacturing defect when it sets itself on fire upon plugging in.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 17 2018, @10:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 17 2018, @10:25PM (#680916)

      I stopped buying Smok when the screen on my mod stopped working after 6 months. Bought a Sigelei and haven't looked back.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 18 2018, @03:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 18 2018, @03:31AM (#680991)

      I see by the mod it must be common sense you don't use the USB port.

      Why do they even put one on there? I epoxied over the USB port on the replacement mod I got (different brand).