Oh, you crack joke!
Posted on 04/17/2012 5:36:45 PM PDT by bkopto
DENVER (CN) - A man was hospitalized for eight days after an electronic cigarette exploded in his face, sending "burning debris and battery acid into his mouth, face, and eyes," the e-smoker claims in Federal Court.
Phillip Hahn sued Pure Enterprises dba Puresmoker.com and Ignition L.P., on a variety of charges, and his wife sued for loss of consortium.
Hahn says he "purchased a Prodigy V3.1 electronic cigarette device from Pure Enterprises' online store, at the website address of puresmoker.com."
After buying the proper batteries from a (nonparty) RadioShack the next day, "Phillip Hahn was using the Prodigy energized by the Enercell batteries at his residence when the Enercell batteries inside the Prodigy suddenly and unexpectedly exploded," the complaint states.
"The explosion sent burning debris and battery acid into Phillip Hahn's mouth, face, and eyes, and as a result, Phillip Hahn sustained catastrophic injuries.
"At all times relevant hereto, Theresa Hahn was in the zone of danger and contemporaneously observed the incident and Phillip Hahn's injuries and immediately called 911.
"Phillip Hahn was transported by ambulance to Northern Colorado Medical Center where he remained for eight (8) days."
The Hahns claim the defendants made numerous false claims about their product, including "'USA-Made High Quality,' ... and 'thousands of hours of research, design and testing have resulted in the high-caliber devices you see here today.'"
They seek damages for product liability, defective design and manufacture, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, failure to warn, and other charges.
(Excerpt) Read more at courthousenews.com ...
Smoking a PROSMOKE right now, no explosions so far. Xing my fingers but hey they do work and keep you off real cigs.
“...his wife sued for loss of consortium.”
Can someone really collect on that? Or is it a “throwaway” count in the suit? Just asking.
Radio shack has troubles too.
I wonder if the batteries were installed correctly?
I wonder if the batteries were installed correctly?
warning labels coming soon LOL
“USA-Made High Quality”.
Sound a bit like chingrish to me.
” Xing my fingers but hey they do work and keep you off real cigs.”
Yeah.....ya can’t smoke in the hospital.
Researching it right now, but I know that Puresmoker does not sell Enercell batteries. He must have been stacking 2 3.0v batteries, and none of Enercell’s batteries that I have found are protected.
So while he wasn’t installing the batteries incorrectly, he was using the wrong kind of batteries.
Edit to add: Puresmoker has gone away from stacked 3.0v batteries for a while, because even if they are protected (which these batteries weren’t), it is still safer to use a single battery when dealing with rechargeable batteries.
Unless I am misreading this, he shouldn’t have much of a case, at least in a just world.
Also, I really can’t understand why someone would shell out over 100 bucks for a quality device, and then walk down to radio shack to buy cheap batteries and save a couple of bucks. Puresmoker sells a really good protected battery for about 10 bucks.
Probably be safer in the long run, if you can avoid the SWAT Team.
I heard about the exploding e-cig on the radio a while back. I couldn’t find any details about the incident on the web. It scared me back to smoking normal cigarettes.
So now it turns out he used the wrong batteries?
Is it safe to go back to e-cigs now?
It appears that way. I don’t believe there has been any problem with anyone using protected rechargeable batteries, even stacked. There is still missing information from the Florida case, where we know it was stacked batteries, but don’t know the kind (as far as a remember, from a few months ago).
Is it safe? Far, far safer than smoking. A lot safer than driving, or going out during a thunderstorm, I would imagine. Probably not as safe as eating broccoli, at a guess.
Use common sense, follow the instructions, and remember that anything rechargeable is potentially dangerous, if instructions aren’t followed, and you will be alright.
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