Exploding e-cig severely burns 3 year old in car seat

Good question, "Where is the Consumer Product Safety Commission?"    And where are the fire chiefs, demanding the No. 1 cause of fires be banned?  Answer: the tobacco lobby provides substantial funding for fire departments.  Buys silence.  A history of tobacco fires and some information on the latter process is at http://medicolegal.tripod.com/preventfires.htm";http://medicolegal.tripo... .  -- Leroy Pletten

In addition to the 3-year-old in Utah who suffered burns, London’s Daily Mail also reports on a car wrecked by a recharging e-cigarette:
 
<strong;E-cigarette wrecked car when it EXPLODED 'like a firework' while&nbsp;being charged overnight leaving seats destroyed and windows&nbsp;blackened</strong;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430393/E-cigarette-wrecked-car-... target="_blank";http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430393/E-cigarette-wrecked-car-...
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Also, 40 US AGs have written the FDA demanding e-cigarette regulation.&nbsp;Their letter here:
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http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/OhioAttorneyGeneral/files/18/18c744fb... target="_blank";http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/OhioAttorneyGeneral/files/18/18c744fb...
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News coverage here:
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40 AGs urge tight regulation of e-cigarettes
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/24/fda-regulation-e-ci... target="_blank";http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/24/fda-regulation-e-ci...
FDA should regulate e-cigarettes, 40 state attorneys&nbsp;general say
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-electronic-cigarette-atto... target="_blank";http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-electronic-cigarette-atto...
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Stan&nbsp;Shatenstein
Editor & Publisher, STAN Bulletin
Smoking & Tobacco&nbsp;Abstracts & News
Montreal, QC Canada
mailto:[email protected]";shatensteins@sympatico.ca
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"Burns suffered by any child are a tragedy. Batteries of any kind are capable of causing fires and explosions.&nbsp;Explosions and fires from e-cigarette batteries, a&nbsp;novel cause,&nbsp;can attract&nbsp;global media&nbsp; coverage.&nbsp;The FDA has reported two very serious cases due to e-cigarettes. 47 adverse events were associated with e-cigarettes from 2008 to 2012,&nbsp;of which&nbsp;eight were serious. These included pneumonia, heart failure,&nbsp;chest pain and rapid heart rate, and two very serious
cases, one of &nbsp;burns to the face from a battery explosion, and another of an infant apparently choking fatally on a cartridge refill.&nbsp;&nbsp;
- Chen Li-Lun FDA summary of adverse reports on electronic cigarettes.&nbsp; Nicotine and Tobacco Research 2013;15: 615-7.The adverse reactions from cigarettes reported to the FDA were not reported by Chen, but&nbsp; I believe cigarettes cause several thousand house fires in the USA annually.&nbsp;
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This latest tragedy is certainly an&nbsp;argument for&nbsp; enforcing battery safety standards, and for the&nbsp;FDA to consider&nbsp;in framing regiulatons.&nbsp;&nbsp;I would be interested to&nbsp;know what other measures might be considered, which&nbsp;would be&nbsp;feasible, apt and proportionate?&nbsp;
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Recalling all e-cigarette batteries, for example, could send a million or so vapers back to smoking.
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Signed
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Murray Laugesen
public health medicine specialist&nbsp;
New Zealand

The reality is that 60-90% (depending on the survey) of most ecig users continue smoking conventional cigarettes at the same time (so called "dual use"), so Murray's statement that recalling e=cig batteries would "send vapers back to smoking" is wrong.&nbsp; Most are still smoking.

Actually most of us are well aware of that long history. Some of us were responsible for shining the light on it.
That doesn't excuse other products that cause fires.
Jon Krueger
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