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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?.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:18PM (6 children)
There's a better simple solution.
Ok, eliminate these dangerous batteries and make the e-cigs plug into mains electrical power. For safety.
Can e-sigs deaths be nonimated for Darwin Awards?
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(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:31PM (4 children)
If you're thinking there'll be more tragic accidents with mains power, I kinda doubt that. Mains-connected devices these days actually have an excellent safety record; when was the last time you heard of a reasonably-modern device starting a fire? By contrast, portable devices with batteries (esp. lithium ones) have a not-so-great record of exploding, catching fire, etc.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 17 2018, @09:00PM (2 children)
I recently had a simple floor lamp give a very impressive "SZNAPPP" and vaporize a section of its cord, leaving a charred spot of (presumably) vaporized insulation on the concrete floor. Does that count? Might have gotten ugly if I hadn't been home and there was something a bit more conductive/flammable on the floor.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday May 18 2018, @01:17AM (1 child)
Wow, that's pretty scary. With so much stuff being made cheaply in China these days and seemingly little to no watchdog activity by our government, we may see more stuff like that.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday May 18 2018, @03:20PM
This was a solid, American-built lamp. I suspect a minor flaw in the cord insulation - I replaced it with a sturdier extension cord and haven't had any further problems.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 18 2018, @12:51PM
Best Practices recommend that anything remotely electrical that you put into any orifice such as the mouth should always be connected to the mains for power.
As suggested by the anon, an inline resister is better than a transformer power supply because it is much simpler and therefore more reliable.
As we know, all diodes can be light emitting -- at least once.
But further research has indicated that there are also light emitting resistors! Such resistors should be part of the device you put into your mouth.
Further investigations into light emitting resistors were interrupted. The researchers are anxious to do further experiments. The principal investigator's wife insisted that further research on light emitting resistors must be moved to the garage.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 18 2018, @04:17AM
Funny, I did this exact thing. Wall wart, inline resistor, button, and socket from a dead vape mod gave me a power cord for my vaporizer. Safer and less wear on the batteries as I plug in at my PC.