Class Action Exploding Devices

[Shekinahsgroom]

I'm sure that most of you have been reading the very recent news about Senator Schumer (D-NY) calling for a ban on vaping gear...

Senator Schumer Wants E-Cigarettes Recalled

Well, the following class action could make it even worse...

Exploding E-Cigarette Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

The so-called "news media" never seems to publish facts and tend to picture explosion victims like they're genuine victims of defective devices. What they always seem to leave out is the back-story....or any obviousness of self-inflicted stupidity.

Now, there are genuine cases of educated users that have had batteries fail, myself included (18350 cell meltdown-no explosion), but the harm-causing explosions are generally coming from ignorance or just blatant misuse.

The vast majority of explosions are not due to defective merchandise, but lack of education on battery safety. Since sub-ohming began, many of us standard vapers could see the impending disaster coming.....

It'll be a very sad day for all of us if vaping is banned because of cloud-chasing. What was originally designed to permanently stop users from smoking tobacco and became extremely effective (if not miraculous), turned into "toys" for the stupid and who can best my cloud?

Some of the blame clearly should be placed on retail vendors for not doing enough to train buyers on how to use these devices properly and what NOT to do. But sadly, most are not interested in anything other than your money and selling out their inventory. And they certainly don't want to admit that their products could cause significant harm, burn, maim or destroy anything within a 5-10 foot radius if used or handled improperly. At least the manufacturers provide safety protection for most devices that would prevent a catastrophic meltdown, but for others like mechs, there's very little safety provided with the exception of venting. The users safety is genuinely at risk if they haven't been educated.

So if you happened to be a genuine victim of an exploding device that's CLEARLY not any fault of yours, then you should sign-up for this class-action. But if you're a victim of your own stupidity....then chalk it up as a learning experience. Because if the non-victims start signing-up for class action suites, you can bet that banning devices could come to fruition.

 

[ENAUD]

 

[trentenmarschel]

I was about to post the same thread, but figured I would do a quick search. So what are your thoughts? I think I'm going to sign up for it and maybe explain that if batteries are exploding, They should investigate each case, and if needed, go after the crappy battery maker and not the E-cig.

Another issue is with very cheaply made E-cigs that have issues where they auto fire in someones pocket and don't stop. In this case, it's not the batteries fault that you completed a circuit that isn't cutting off like it's supposed to. If I lay a crow bar across my car battery terminals and wait until it explodes, it isn't the batteries fault.

 

[Stosh]

So will all cell phones, flashlights, laptops, tablets, electric toothbrushes, etc also be recalled and banned under this registration? Nah, didn't think so....

 

[trentenmarschel]

So will all cell phones, flashlights, laptops, tablets, electric toothbrushes, etc also be recalled and banned under this registration? Nah, didn't think so....

On the E-cigarette issue it is mostly 90+% due to improper handling of batteries. The other 10% is improper setup and really crappy devices. There are hundreds of thousands of Lithium Ion batteries in the world that work great without exploding. If they are ordering some very cheaply made brand of batteries that a bunch of slave children in a sweat shop made, then that needs to be identified and the problem can easily be solved by finding a different battery maker. Kind of like the new Galaxy phones that were exploding. I don't normally hear of google or apple phones doing that. I don't see anyone banning all devices with lithium ion batteries. My point is that all E-cigarettes are not made the same, and the largest portion of them don't explode. But if they find some fault in some cheap battery, then it can be solved simply by finding a different battery brand.

 

[Stosh]

On the E-cigarette issue it is mostly 90+% due to improper handling of batteries. The other 10% is improper setup and really crappy devices. There are hundreds of thousands of Lithium Ion batteries in the world that work great without exploding. .....

Yup, I agree. My point was that all similar devices are not banned with one bad report. Go to Walmart, customer service desk, their bulletin board of recalls...there are a variety of devices being recalled due to bad design or batteries, and susceptibility of customer misuse . Without banning the sale of all such devices.

 

[trentenmarschel]

Yup, I agree. My point was that all similar devices are not banned with one bad report. Go to Walmart, customer service desk, their bulletin board of recalls...there are a variety of devices being recalled due to bad design or batteries, and susceptibility of customer misuse . Without banning the sale of all such devices.

Agree.
One issue is that there are certain special interest groups (Big tobacco) who will push issues like this to create more regulation and to add to their theory that we don't know the dangers of E-cigarettes. It's sad in a way because most people instantly believe everything they read and hear without doing any research. So news says E-cigarettes are not safe and are blowing up, they tend to believe it. I haven't seen or heard a single news report of an E-cigarette exploding that mentioned it could have been due to improper handling of the battery. That just yells lazy incompetent investigative journalism.

 

[BuGlen]

I haven't seen or heard a single news report of an E-cigarette exploding that mentioned it could have been due to improper handling of the battery. That just yells lazy incompetent investigative journalism.

To be fair, I've seen several articles over the past few months on the two most recent incidents that include the facts that the batteries that vented were not in the device, but rather in the pocket with loose change or keys. These facts are almost always located in a couple of small paragraphs after all the rhetorical "expert" testimony on just how evil vapor products can be, but they're included in any case.

 

[trentenmarschel]

To be fair, I've seen several articles over the past few months on the two most recent incidents that include the facts that the batteries that vented were not in the device, but rather in the pocket with loose change or keys. These facts are almost always located in a couple of small paragraphs after all the rhetorical "expert" testimony on just how evil vapor products can be, but they're included in any case.

Maybe in the online articles. The ones I've mostly seen on local news and HLN hardly mention improper use or handling. Most of the time it seems to follow this path: E-cig exploded, "OMG" E-cigs are bad, "OHHH the Humanity", What shall we do. The problem might be the fact that some news outlets are more resistant to special interest than others. Also people need to research things a little more before they form their opinion.

I actually was at my dad's house one time, and a friend of his was there. I had my E-cig out using it and he started going on about how those things were so unsafe because he saw a news report about how they were exploding. I tried to explain to him that is was most probably due to improper handling of the battery or improperly using the device itself. I don't think my words had much of an impact because I'm just one person against the word of the guys on the news. But hopefully people will start to do their own research into issues like this before taking any actions that can potentially regulate the industry. (like local laws on tax or use of E-cigarettes)


Also I just changed my signature banner. I guess the site that hosted my last one is having issues. It was ecigalternative.com. No more quit smoking banners with them.

 

[Lessifer]

The likely result of all of this is that somehow retailers will be prevented from selling batteries that do not have proper warnings on them. Since the manufacturers of the good batteries we use aren't actually interested in selling the batteries individually at the retail level, I doubt they will start labeling them for individual sale. So, we may have a hard time finding good 18650's at some point.

 

[Tufur]

The likely result of all of this is that somehow retailers will be prevented from selling batteries that do not have proper warnings on them. Since the manufacturers of the good batteries we use aren't actually interested in selling the batteries individually at the retail level, I doubt they will start labeling them for individual sale. So, we may have a hard time finding good 18650's at some point.

The old name game could start up. In Calif. certain firearms were banned using their names. The manufacturers renamed them and now they are legal again. Same with rolling tobacco. It was renamed pipe tobacco to avoid the ridiculous cigarette tobacco per pound taxes. The e-cigarette battery is a slightly different case. There is only one manufacturer making batteries for the vaping community. I don't see re-wrapping as manufacturing. The simple solution is to sell them as flashlight or electronic appliance batteries which they originally were. At worst like you say, they will get warning labels that will have to be peeled off to fit in some devices.

 

[Verb]

The likely result of all of this is that somehow retailers will be prevented from selling batteries that do not have proper warnings on them. Since the manufacturers of the good batteries we use aren't actually interested in selling the batteries individually at the retail level, I doubt they will start labeling them for individual sale. So, we may have a hard time finding good 18650's at some point.

Worst case, battery packs get broken into and cells are desoldered and cleaned up or mods are constructed to accept battery packs that avoid the loose cell issue.

 

[Lessifer]

Worst case, battery packs get broken into and cells are desoldered and cleaned up or mods are constructed to accept battery packs that avoid the loose cell issue.

People breaking open battery packs is going to make things so much safer...

It would be nice if the big companies(sony, samsung, etc.) decided to actually label their batteries for individual sale. I just don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

 

[MacTechVpr]

The likely result of all of this is that somehow retailers will be prevented from selling batteries that do not have proper warnings on them. Since the manufacturers of the good batteries we use aren't actually interested in selling the batteries individually at the retail level, I doubt they will start labeling them for individual sale. So, we may have a hard time finding good 18650's at some point.

Absolutely Machiaveliian. When will we be rid of these pathological leeches. Mark Cain! Let's find an island for them.

Good luck and Happy New Year.

 

[Maestro]

The problem is that no one has yet made ecigs idiot-proof. You can chuck any battery into a flashlight and it won't matter because the current draw is so low. If you try to use the wrong battery on a laptop or cellphone, it won't fit. But when you have a high current device and you can put any correct sized battery into it, regardless of the amp rating, ignorant people are going to have problems. I looked through Amazon to see if I could get a battery and I was amazed at how little information is provided and as an experienced vaper even I couldn't always be sure if the battery is safe. If you have someone with no idea of battery safety and they see a pack of 10 4000mah batteries for $5, you just know they're headed for trouble. I'm actually amazed that the explosions have been so few.

 

[MacTechVpr]

I don't believe idiots exist* only uninformed vapers.

*Except for certain politicians like the subject and all those who would stand in the way of remediating the latter for expediency or profit.

Good luck all and Happy New Year!

 

[Maestro]

I believe the two terms are synonymous. You have to be one to be the other. We're not talking about brands of deodorant here. We're talking about something that can remove half of your face.

 

[MacTechVpr]

I believe the two terms are synonymous. You have to be one to be the other. We're not talking about brands of deodorant here. We're talking about something that can remove half of your face.

Have a simple definition for stupid — to think or act out of ignorance. It's a choice.

Good luck and Happy New year.

 

[bobwho77]

In civil suits, the law can be whatever you convince the jury to say it is, so there is plenty of precedent for rewarding user stupidity.
That being said...
I really don't see this having much effect on the vaping industry, beyond the already mentioned warning labels for batteries.
BTW...
Has anyone seen any 18650s labeled "This product made from tobacco" for FDA compliance yet?

 

[Verb]

In civil suits, the law can be whatever you convince the jury to say it is, so there is plenty of precedent for rewarding user stupidity.
That being said...
I really don't see this having much effect on the vaping industry, beyond the already mentioned warning labels for batteries.
BTW...
Has anyone seen any 18650s labeled "This product made from tobacco" for FDA compliance yet?

The FDA's most recent interpretation of their own language is that warning is for covered tobacco products that contain tobacco or a tobacco derivative. Components of tobacco products that are sold without containing tobacco or a tobacco derivative are not required to display that warning.