US woman burned by exploding e-cigarette battery awarded US$1.9 million

[Gimli]

US woman burned by exploding e-cigarette battery awarded US$1.9 million

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 01 October, 2015, 3:45pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 01 October, 2015, 3:45pm

Tribune News Service in Los Angeles

The aftermath of the exploding battery is seen on the burnt car seat upholstery. Photo: CBS

Jennifer Ries and her husband were travelling to the Los Angeles airport for an international trip when she decided she should charge her e-cigarette battery.

After plugging the device into the car’s charger, liquid started dripping from the battery, she said. The car filled with a smell like nail polish remover. Then, with a loud bang, the battery exploded.

Flames shot out, catching Ries’ dress and seat on fire. Chemicals spewed onto her lap, leaving her with severe burns. Panicked and aflame, she tried to jump out of the moving car, but her husband pulled her back and poured iced coffee on her to douse the fire.

Ries said she sustained second-degree burns on her legs, buttocks and hand in the March 2013 accident. She still has physical and emotional scars, she said.

Jennifer Ries, who sustained burns on her legs, buttocks and hand, with her husband Xavier. Photo: CBS

On Wednesday, a Riverside County Superior Court jury awarded her nearly US$1.9 million in a lawsuit she brought against the electronic cigarette’s distributor, VapCigs; its wholesaler, Cartons 2 Go; and the store where she bought it, Tobacco Expo.

Her product liability lawsuit alleged that the businesses in the supply chain were “involved in the distribution of a product that failed to conform to any kind of reasonable safety expectation - battery chargers should not explode - and failed to warn about known dangers.”

“It was an accident that completely changed my life,” said Ries, 31, of San Clemente. “You never expect when you buy something that it’s going to misfire or break or injure you. It was extremely scary.”

Ries’ attorney, Gregory Bentley, said he believed the case was the first e-cigarette explosion lawsuit to be tried in the United States. Bentley said that despite huge sales, the fledgling e-cigarette industry is largely unregulated, with few safeguards for consumer protection.

An e-cigarette user at a vapour bar in Los Angeles. Photo: Reuters

“If you’re going to be in the business of manufacturing, distributing, wholesaling or retailing a product, you need to make sure that what you’re selling is safe,” Bentley said. “If you don’t, you’re doing so at your own peril.”

The US Fire Administration said e-cigarettes often use lithium-ion batteries that include flammable liquid electrolytes that can explode when they overheat, such as when they receive too much voltage while charging.

Many e-cigarettes have USB ports for connecting the device to power adapters provided by the manufacturer. But the “ordinary USB port charging connections” allow users to plug them in to other ports - which have varied voltages and electric current. If the battery receives too much current, it can explode, the report said.