Want create site? Find Free WordPress Themes and plugins.

An elderly woman is being treated for severe burns following an incident in which an oxygen supply ignited and engulfed her in flames. Though investigators are looking into the incident, many media outlets are claiming that an electronic cigarette “discovered near to her hospital bed after the blast” is to blame.

Let’s be clear, there is a risk of catastrophic failure in electronic cigarettes. The lithium batteries in them can begin a cascading overload which can cause them to heat up, melt, catch fire, and possibly explode. In most cases, this appears to happen with poor quality products, when charging with inappropriate devices, or in some other extreme circumstance. Most, especially larger non-disposable e-cigs come with a variety of safeguards to prevent this.

We aren’t going to say that this didn’t happen because we don’t know. But this event further demonstrates media coverage turning a maybe into a definitely in the title of its articles and then explaining little in the actual story. The Manchester Evening News (where the incident happened) covered it with the title Gran engulfed in flames after ‘e-cigarette ignited her oxygen supply in hospital’

Despite this title, the quote never appears in the story and the only direct statement about involvement of an electronic cigarette was the following line: An investigation has been launched after an electronic cigarette was discovered near to her hospital bed after the blast.

It is certainly possible for this to have happened. Oxygen supplies are very dangerous things and they are known to explode and ignite on occasion. Most often this occurs when the individual on oxygen smokes. In one study, out of 27 incidents of oxygen supply burns, 25 involved cigarettes, and the other 2 involved pilot lights. So in general, an open flame is needed to cause a problem. If electronics could cause this problem, there would be a lot more warnings about using cell phones while on oxygen.

There is also no mention of the state of the electronic cigarette. Certainly if it blew up or caught fire, there would have been some mention of it or that pieces of it were found. But discovered near to her hospital bed implies to us that she wasn’t even using it at the time that the incident occurred. Is it possible the woman was smoking for real?

But then, this is all speculation — just like when the media claims the incident was caused by an electronic cigarette. It’s reckless, and it contributes to the ignorance of people that don’t want to give e-cigs a chance because the media tells fills the air with fear-mongering that gets better ratings. Then again, perhaps just as much of the concern should be the safety of oxygen supplies.

We’ll keep an ear out for the results of the investigation.