E-cigarette fires and injuries on the rise

Mineola, N.Y. — Katrina Williams wanted a safer alternative to smoking, and e-cigarettes seemed to be the answer until the day one exploded in her pocket as she drove home from a beauty salon.

“It was like a firecracker” as it seared third-degree burns in her leg, blasted through her charred pants and stuck in the dashboard, the New Yorker said. That was in April. Williams, a freight manager, said she still hasn’t returned to work. “It was very disturbing.”

Similar accidents have been noted increasingly over the past year as use of e-cigarettes has climbed, with faulty batteries seen as the suspected culprit. The industry says e-cigarettes are safe when used properly.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which started regulating e-cigarettes in May, identified about 66 explosions in 2015 and early 2016, after recording 92 explosions from 2009 to September 2015.

The numbers kept by the FDA may be an undercount. One hospital, the University of Washington Medicine Regional Burn Center at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, says it has seen about 23 patients with e-cigarette burns since it started tracking them informally in October 2015.

The problems with the devices are linked to their lithium-ion batteries, which help vaporize liquid nicotine into a mist that distributors and some health experts say is less harmful than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

The same types of batteries have also been behind fires in hover boards and smartphones.

Last year, the federal Department of Transportation issued a rule prohibiting passengers from packing e-cigarettes in checked luggage to protect against in-flight fires.

Thomas Kiklas, cofounder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, argues the devices are safe when used properly. He said TVECA encourages proper recharging of the batteries as a way to prevent possible injuries.

Euromonitor International, a market research firm, says there were 10.8 million regular U.S. e-cigarette users in 2015.

“The problem is defectively manufactured batteries,” he said. “Consumers need to know it’s next to impossible to sue a Chinese company. If people want to seek compensation they have to target distributors, wholesalers and retailers.”

New York Sen. Charles Schumer said the FDA should consider a recall.

“It’s bad enough that ecigarettes cause nicotine addiction and may be dangerous to a person’s health, but now it seems they’re doubling as a ticking time bomb,” he said.