Exploding E-Cigarettes
Why bother with all this?
The doughty online publication, ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) Daily News, on 9 June 2017 carried a warning headline: ‘Safety advice given after e-cigarette fire’.
A woman called Leanne Williams had a potentially serious problem with an ‘88 Vape’ brand e-cigarette apparatus.
This is how 88 Vape advertises these contraptions on their website:
Here at 88 Vape we have two priorities: unrivaled pricing and high quality…Being such exceptional value for money is crucial to 88 Vape. We believe it gives everyone the taste of vaping freedom without compromising on flavour, quality and variety!
We have carefully selected the 15 most popular e-liquids so that you can find a delicious flavour to enjoy! Whether you choose our traditional tobacco blend, Rolling Leaf, or our wonderfully sweet Morello Cherry your vape will be bursting full of flavour!…Switch to 88 Vape today and you’ll never look back! (Buzz-words and clichés emphasised.)
Also, note this:
Electronic Cigarettes are now one of the largest global markets worth an astounding £1.8 billion
Gentle reader, please keep this in mind as I warm to my theme.
The unfortunate Ms Williams takes up the story:
It was on charge on the landing. I heard a big bang, and my other half jumped out of bed. It was in flames and there were burns all over because it had blown up and the bits were also on fire. If anyone had been near it, it would have really hurt them.
A lucky escape. But Ms Williams didn’t want to let it go at that. She complained to the store from which she had bought her 88 Vape device, B & M Bargains in Standishgate. They responded:
The packaging on the item states it should be charged with a USB port and not using a wall charger as you have done. Due to this, we can confirm the product is not defective and the issue has been caused due to improper use.
Unfortunately, some people have actually been hurt by these kinds of accidents:
In October 2014, a man was rushed to hospital with horrific injuries after his e-cigarette exploded. The man in his forties was found seriously injured in his house in Scholes after the e-cig blast caused shards of metal to embed his legs. The explosion was so powerful that it even blew out the lenses in his glasses. He had thrown the brand-new e-cigarette on the floor after it suddenly became very hot, before it exploded and sent pieces of metal flying into the man’s legs
Now note this:
One of the man’s neighbours, Billy Baldwin, said he was shocked to think that such a small device designed to help you could cause so much injury. (Emphasis added.)
These devices are not designed to help the purchasers; they are designed to help the bank balances of the manufacturers and sellers.
At least 88 Vape makes one thing clear: ‘Please note that 88 Vape products have not been designed to be a Nicotine Replacement Therapy.’
The implication, nonetheless, is that for people who believe they cannot stop putting nicotine into their bodies, these products are safer than smoking cigarettes.
This defeatist attitude is encouraged by conventional stop smoking counsellors: stopping smoking is too difficult, so the next best thing it to continue your addiction in a supposedly safer way. This only encourages smokers (synonym: nicotine addicts) in their belief that stopping smoking is, indeed, too difficult for them. Good! It’s officially sanctioned that continued nicotine use is OK!
So, e-cigarettes – provided you can avoid them blowing up and causing injuries, and if you want to go to the expense of buying a starter kit and the bother of plugging them in with a USB connection to re-charge them and then keep buying the e-liquid to generate the vapour – are a (possibly) safer way of continuing one’s nicotine addiction.
Text © Gabriel Symonds
