Extensive burn injury caused by fundamental electronic cigarette design flaw.
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: Currently, electronic cigarette (EC) devices are widely used as an alternative to conventional smoking. The underlying technical principle is an electric coil-based vaporizer unit, which vaporizes various solutions for inhalation purposes with a rechargeable lithium battery unit as power source. We report a case of extensive burn injury resulting from the thermal explosion of a battery unit within an EC device. Though internal thermal instabilities of lithium ion batteries are a known safety issue, the unique feature here is a pronounced amplification of the extent of burn injury due to an additional scalding burn mechanism that resulted from heating of the liquid reservoir adjacent to the battery. Thus, we demonstrate a relevant design flaw in various EC devices, which in the authors' opinion needs to be addressed both by manufacturers and safety regulations.
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Authors: S Bohr, F Almarzouqi, N Pallua
Institutions: Universitätsklinikum Aachen, RWTH Aachen University
Language: English
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2587703278