A guy maintains in court a defective battery in his cigarette that is electronic exploded in his slacks, burning crotch, his legs and member so badly that he needed a crisis circumcision. As recounted in the Oct. 14, Michael Halfmann bought a Samsung INR18650 lithium-ion battery to power his e-cigarette, but a month later, while in a take out cafe, the battery ignited while in his right pants pocket.

Halfmann claims the heat in the battery burned through his trousers and onto his naked skin, causing severe third-degree burns to his legs and groin area. Halfmann says he was taken in the eatery by ambulance to the hospital where he stayed for more than a week getting treatment for his injuries. Two weeks after his discharge, plaintiff states he was readmitted to the hospital due to an illness and he needed a crisis circumcision to prevent the disease from spreading further.

Complainant sued Samsung SDI America Inc. and Hwy 9 Vapor LLC for negligence, breach of guarantee, failure to warn and product-liability because defendants “knew or should have known that mentioned battery was unreasonably dangerous when being used in a foreseeable way.” Jeremy Knowles of Birmingham, Alabama represents complainant.

This is rather worrying as the e-cigarettes have a lot of energy and this is a regular occurrence considering the batteries are not under a lot of demand. We think there should be safety measures to stop this and may look to making a Fire Protect Bag just for e-cigarettes.