Exploding e-cigarettes deal a blow to vaping’s health message

SARA RANDAZZO
THE AUSTRALIAN
JULY 5, 2016
Rachel Berven grabbed her e-cigarette and put in a new battery one day in February, the same way she had often done since turning to the vapour-emitting device to quit smoking a year earlier.
But this time, when Ms Berven pushed the activation button, she claims the e-cigarette exploded, ripping a hole in her mouth and spewing battery acid across her body. Months later, Ms Berven says she is struggling to pay for dental procedures to replace three cracked teeth, bears scars on her face and won’t wear shorts in the sweltering heat of Modesto, California, because of burn marks on her legs from the accident.
“In my head, the explosion just keeps happening,” said 27-year-old Ms Berven, who in March sued Switch to Vapor, the retailer that sold her the e-cigarette, for negligence. A store manager had no comment.
Since hitting the US market in 2007, e-cigarettes, which heat liquid nicotine and other ingredients into an inhalable vapour, have been touted as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes and a path to quitting smoking. But some lawyers and consumers say the $US3.5 billion ($4.7bn) industry isn’t doing enough to address a potential hazard: cheaply made lithium-ion batteries in the products that can unexpectedly explode.
Industry groups say that any purported explosions are negligible, considering the overall number of e-cigarette users, and that accidents are often the result of user error.
Dozens of lawsuits over the alleged defects have been filed in Florida, New York, California and other states. Many of the batteries at issue are manufactured by Chinese companies, which are difficult to haul into US courts. So lawyers typically set their sights more broadly, often naming as defendants everyone in the supply chain.
“It’s an issue of the batteries being unregulated and manufactured haphazardly with poor warnings that never get down to the consumer,” said Marc Freund, a New York lawyer whose firm has filed suits on behalf of a teenage boy who allegedly became partially blinded from an e-cigarette explosion at a mall kiosk and a woman who claims she suffered third-degree burns on her thigh when a battery exploded in her pocket.
The Transportation Department recently banned e-cigarettes in checked luggage, citing several fires caused by the devices. And politicians have called on authorities to investigate the products.
After years of scant oversight, government agencies are beginning to scrutinise the e-cigarette industry.
Research from the Food and Drug Administration, which said in May it would begin regulating e-cigarettes, found 134 reports of overheating, fires and explosions of the devices in the US between 2009 and January 2016. The agency is phasing in rules that will require vaping products on the market to secure government approval.
Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, a group that represents e-cigarette manufacturers, retailers, importers and wholesalers, said it takes safety incidents seriously. It said millions of former smokers in the US and overseas found vaping “a significant alternative to combustible cigarettes”.