A Calgary man will likely need skin grafts after his e-cigarette's battery exploded in his pocket on Friday.
Terrence Johnson and his wife Rachel Rex had just finished eating dinner at The Embarcadero on 17 Ave. and were chatting with their waiter outside when their conversation was interrupted with a flash.
A spare e-cigarette battery had touched some change in Johnson's pocket, causing it to burst into flames.
Johnson's leg was left with third-degree burns, and his hands with first and second-degree burns from attempting to extinguish the fire.
The couple told CTV News that staff at the restaurant helped extinguish the flames and collected fragments of the battery before paramedics arrived and took them to Foothills Hospital. The Embarcadero also provided them with surveillance video of the incident (watch the video above).
Johnson told CBC News that the battery, sold by Efest Power, had no warnings anywhere on the packaging.
However, the company's website warns users "DO NOT PUT ANY BATTERIES IN YOUR POCKET."
5 Important Lessons From The Biggest E-Cigarette Study
Some youth have their first taste of nicotine via e-cigarettes.(01 of05)
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Twenty percent of middle schoolers and 7.2 percent of high schooler e-cigarette users in the U.S. report never smoking cigarettes. (credit:Gettystock)
Nicotine absorption varies too much between brands.(02 of05)
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Early 2010 studies found that users got much lower levels of nicotine from e-cigarettes than from conventional cigarettes, but more recent studies show that experienced e-cigarette users can draw levels of nicotine from an e-cigarette that are similar to conventional cigarettes. Yet another study noted that the chosen e-cigarettes for the research malfunctioned for a third of participants. UCSF researchers say this indicates the need for stronger product standards and regulations. (credit:Gettystock)
Just because particulate matter from e-cigarettes isn't well studied, doesn't mean it's safe.(03 of05)
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To deliver nicotine, e-cigarettes create a spray of very fine particles that have yet to be studied in depth. "It is not clear whether the ultra-fine particles delivered by e-cigarettes have health effects and toxicity similar to the ambient fine particles generated by conventional cigarette smoke or secondhand smoke," wrote the researchers. But we do know that fine particulate matter from cigarettes and from air pollution are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disease. And some research has found that the size and spray of fine particulate matter from e-cigarettes is just as great or greater than conventional cigarettes. (credit:Gettystock)
Major tobacco companies have acquired or produced their own e-cigarette products.(04 of05)
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They're promoting the products as "harm reduction" for smokers, which allows them to protect their cigarette market while promoting a new product. Companies also using "grassroots" tactics to form seemingly independent smokers' rights groups, just like they did for cigarettes in the 1980s. (credit:Gettystock )
So far, e-cigarette use is not associated with the successful quitting of conventional cigarettes.(05 of05)
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One clinical trial found that e-cigarettes was no more effective than the nicotine patch at helping people quit, and both cessation methods "produced very modest quit rates without counseling." (credit:Gettystock )
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