The burgeoning $3.5bn e-cigarette industry relies on its ability to market itself as the ‘safer’ alternative to traditional cigarettes. However, that reputation is coming under fire from dozens of consumers across the United States who argue that the cheaply produced lithium-ion batteries contained in many e-cigarette products pose a threat to those who use them. In the case of one e-cigarette user, an exploding lithium-ion battery ripped a whole through her mouth and splashed battery acid on her body, resulting in extensive burns.
Underegulation and poor disclosure
As many of the batteries in question are manufactured by large Chinese companies (which are difficult to haul into US courts), plaintiffs are generally targeting other links in the e-cigarette supply chain, such as industry body the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association, for failing to do more to ensure safety standards. ‘It’s an issue of the batteries being unregulated and manufactured haphazardly with poor warnings that never get down to the consumer,’ says New York attorney Mark Freund, whose firm is representing a teenage boy left partially blind by an exploding e-cigarette battery. Research from the US Food and Drug Administration recorded some 134 cases of overheating, fires and explosions of e-cigarette devices between 2009 and January 2016. However, industry insiders have insisted that e-cigarettes pose no more significant safety threats than other lithium battery powered devices, such as laptops and mobile phones.
Sources: Wall Street Journal; TechTimes
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