Exploding Cell Phone Battery Kills

LingNoi writes "A man in Korea was found dead at his workplace Wednesday morning and his mobile phone battery was melted in his shirt pocket. No one knows for sure yet but a doctor who examined the body said, "He sustained an injury that is similar to a burn in the left chest and his ribs and spine were broken" We have heard of other dangerous battery products here on Slashdot." Update: 11/30 17:34 GMT by Z : Turns out the melted battery was the least of his worries; he was actually hit by a truck.

Comments

Grain of Salt Required?

[ackthpt]

An LG official confirmed its product was involved in the accident but said the company would not comment directly on the accident because the cause was not confirmed. However, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to company policy, said such a fatal explosion would be virtually impossible.

I'd like to know just how big that battery was.

Kim Hoon, a doctor who examined the body, said the death was probably caused by an explosion of the battery. "He sustained an injury that is similar to a burn in the left chest and his ribs and spine were broken," Yonhap news agency quoted Kim as saying.

Broken ribs and spine? Ok, this man was found in his workplace (a quarry.) Isn't reasonable to assume something else broke those ribs and spine and whatever did that also damaged the phone and battery?

The cell in my Razr could probably take off a finger or two if it exploded from pressure, but a spine is a rather hard thing to break, let alone ribs, unless this was a very, very small man.

This sounds like something from The Weekly World News, the Sun or News of the World.

Next on Fantastic Nooz: Scientist proves earth was created by asteroid collision with Moon, not the other way around. IAU rocked by the revelation and immediately reinstates Pluto as a full-fledged planet, with all rights and privileges. "Smaller bodies should have rights!", proclaim cosmologists.

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[HTTP Error 403 403.9]

In Korea, exploding cellphones are only for old people.

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[Uthic]

Heh, yeah. Sounds like something out of Blood Money - A cell phone packed with a smidge of explosives!

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[fireboy1919]

...unless this was a very, very small man.
His job in the quarry was to hunt rats. He has a tiny spear, and special shirt with a gigantic (for him) pocket sown into the back to carry his cellphone, which is essentially the largest thing he carries.

Did I mention that he's a minature dwarf spider monkey? Hmm...probably not important.

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[Ogive17]

I'd have to agree with you. It doesn't seem that the mass of a battery (or a cell phone in general) would be high enough to do the damage described in the article.

Maybe the cell phone battery exploded, he started to panic because it burned, and he fell on a table edge and broke is back.. ribs break easily so just a normal fall could cause that.

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[ByOhTek]

Very good analysis. The doctor most likely does not understand the tech involved in a cell phone battery to determine that it could explode like that.

Given pictures/videos of exploding laptop batteries that have been shown in the past, I'm not sure one of those could even break the spine through the chest of a small child let alone adult. And using the worst case against my argument, even the larger cell phones out there (such as blackberrys, and iPhones) are the size of laptop batteries and smaller. Even if it was entirely battery, a modern phone shouldn't have this kind of force, should it?

Here's a thought, the phone battery goes, possibly breaks the rib(s), he falls, and breaks his spine (and possibly rib(s)) in the process.

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[adavies42]

I heard that the Mossad actually used that on a Palestinian terrorist once. Presumably he said "hello", and they said "goodbye" before sending the "detonate" command....

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[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Broken ribs and spine? Ok, this man was found in his workplace (a quarry.) Isn't reasonable to assume something else broke those ribs and spine and whatever did that also damaged the phone and battery?"

He probably fell after it exploded. Unfortunately, the article's not too clear on that.

"He sustained an injury that is similar to a burn in the left chest and his ribs and spine were broken," Yonhap news agency quoted Kim as saying.

"It is presumed that pressure caused by the explosion damaged his heart and lungs, leading to his death," it quoted him as saying. I'll grant you that where they slipped it in is confusing, but the doctor doesn't mention the ribs or spine.

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[cromar]

Actually, ribs are very easy to break. It's almost as easy as snapping a pencil...

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[wattrlz]

How old was the battery? I read somewhere that some older li-ion batteries use lithium chlorate dissolved in ether as as an electrolyte, which is also a pretty decent sprengel explosive.

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[harrkev]

I have read (note that I am not a chemist) that the energy density of a lithium battery is close to that of the explosive in a grenade. The difference is that the grenade releases its energy all at one, while a lithium battery deliveres it a little at a time over hours/days (if all goes well).

Note that I said energy density. This takes into account the volume, and cell phone batteries are rather small. So a cell phone battery will have a lot less energy than a grenade, just because it is smaller.

A quick google search turned up this link. Search down for the word "grenade": http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/2/28/20539/1486

OK. I admit that this is not an authoritative source. But, look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density

The energy density of some explosives is about twice (when compared on terms of weight, not volume) that of a Lithium-ion battery. Once you add the weight of the metal around the explosive, it seems reasonable.

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[calebt3]

A small pack of high-grade explosives up against your ear is not the same thing as a battery in your shirt pocket.

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[fbjon]

Well, it's certainly demolished. Pictures.

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[AmaDaden]

Oh come on, that one was funny.

The reference was to this
In Korea, Email Is Only For Old People

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[secPM_MS]

I agree. I think we have two coupled events here:

1

The phone battery failed causing him to fall or get in the way of something, resulting in the broken ribs and spine.

2

He fell or was stuck, resulting in the broken ribs and spine. The impact caused the phone battery to fail.

2 seems far more likely than 1. Having a battery blow up in a shirt pocket and leaving a burn on my chest is not going to break my spine. An explosion in my shirt pocket that is powerful enough to break my spine is also going to blow my chest tissue off, blow my ribs into my lungs and heart, and do a lot of other damage.

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[statusbar]

Interesting info!

Also, one of my pet peeves with 'snopes' is that they say that cell phones can't/don't cause gasoline vapour to explode, however their analysis and science behind the statements is based on the theory that the only way for this to happen is for the radio signals to cause some sort of spark.

However we all know that improperly charged NiCd and Lithium ion batteries can explode by themselves - what happens if your cell phone explodes when you are at the gas pump filling your card with gas?

Strangely, snopes.com never responded to my email stating this question...

--jeffk++

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is the /. meme Police. Step out of the thread sir. *Tazed*

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[Anonymous Coward]

I'd just like to say "thank you" for posting a photo link that WASN'T goatse.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Must be lots of offended old Koreans reading /.

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[bark76]

Maybe he got his clothing here.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Not only is it far fetched to say that exploding batteries are likely to kill someone, but there have been many instances where exploding batteries have actually saved people's lives. One of the side effects of the new gadget culture is that when people are struck by lightning, the current flows to the battery contained in a cell phone, ipod or whatever the person has on them causing the battery to explode. And while the victims sustain major burns from the explosion, on many occasions this prevents much of the current from traveling through the heart/brain and actually helps the victim survive.

So it stands to reason that if people can routinely survive a battery explosion under extra-ordinary circumstances (where the battery is conducting an extra 1.21 Jigawatts ;-), an explosion under ordinary circumstances would be that much more unlikely to kill someone.

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[PPH]

This sounds like something from The Weekly World News, the Sun ...

[Sigh] And we don't even get photos of space alien offspring or a page three girl.

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[Smidge204]

Have you been drinking enough Malk?

=Smidge=

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is the /. meme Police. Step out of the thread sir. *Tazed*

In Soviet Russia, cell phones explode with frickin' sharks attached to their heads.

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[harrkev]

Don't be too hard on them for that. Batteries exploding is still very rare. When it happens, it makes the news. The odds of any person's phone exploding is extremely low. The odds of that happening during the 10 minutes a week when they are filling up is negligible.

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[zippthorne]

Nothing. Mythbusters actually did good work on this one. You've got to have the fuel-air mix just right, or even a spark plug won't light it. There are really only two places where the cell could ignite fumes. One is right next to the fuel port, and the other is on the ground in a puddle of gasoline.

Both assume that you're pretty sloppy with the nozzle. Like Zoolander sloppy. There's supposed to be a vapor hood over it for pollution reduction, which would also reduce the fuel in the air around the nozzle.

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[Dan East]

Far too much energy was released thermally for this to have caused physical trauma (kinetic). If it was an explosion, the phone would have stress type damage - it would be cracked and broken into pieces. The amount of melting indicates a relatively slow release of energy, melting the plastic and burning the clothes.

Think of a firecracker. If it explodes, there won't be heat damage to nearby objects. However if you take the powder out and light it, it will burn for a long enough period of time to cause thermal damage. Same thing here - the majority of the energy was thermal and not kinetic.

Dan East

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[cleatsupkeep]

However - we cannot always rely on Snopes - http://xkcd.com/250/

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[BlueMerle]

Set Razors on Stun!!

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[dpiven]

Next on Fantastic Nooz: Scientist proves earth was created by asteroid collision with Moon, not the other way around. IAU rocked by the revelation and immediately reinstates Pluto as a full-fledged planet, with all rights and privileges. "Smaller bodies should have rights!", proclaim cosmologists.

Today on Fantastic Nooz: Jupiter rocked by accusations of illegally capturing dozens of minor orbiting bodies; plunges into deep depression over being called "solar system's largest gas giant" and attempts to commit suicide by standing in front of hurtling comet!

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[Mister Whirly]

Most likely because Snopes doesn't deal with theoretical "What if" situations much. Now if someone actually had a phone explode while pumping gas, they would probably address this. The thing that Snopes is claiming about cellphones is that so far there hasn't been a single case where a cell phone has been proven to spark the gas vapors. There have been a few cases where explosions have happened while people were talking on a cell phone, but the cause in each case was determined to be static electricity discharge and the fact they were using a cell phone at the time was merely coincidental.
Mythbusters even featured this urban myth on their show (Season 2- Episode 14) and couldn't get a cell phone inside a box full of gas vapors to ignite anything. They declared the myth "Busted!".

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[Dare nMc]

He probably fell after it exploded.

I have to agree with you analysis, except which occurred first? Was the phone smashed in the fall causing the burning battery, or did a burning battery cause the fall.

It would be very easy to fall 50 feet onto the cell phone, but unless the cell phone was trapped against his body by something stronger than his ribs, or flew 50 feet away, even if it was hydrogen that went nuclear in their, it would have had to throw pieces of the phone a long ways to balance this force needed.

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is the /. meme Police. Step out of the thread sir. *Tazed*

The German police will be pleased!

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[cromar]

LOL :) Let me put it another way: these boards are all harder to break than ribs are, yet someone without much training (beyond how to keep their wrists straight while punching) can usually learn to break a board in 2-3 punches, in my experience. This article explains a bit about the physics of punching.

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[hjf]

You forgot to mention your sources:

According to NASA, In Korea, exploding cellphones are only for old people.

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[mikael]

However their analysis and science behind the statements is based on the theory that the only way for this to happen is for the radio signals to cause some sort of spark.

I'd hate to be next to a gas station when there's a thunderstorm. I'm amazed that they don't all go popping like firecrackers every summer.

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[TheCarp]

However, don't forget the stupidity of people.

I saw footage the other day on the news of a car that caught fire at a gas pump. The story claimed it was caused by static electric buildup. The person had been filling the tank, got back in their car, then got out to take out the nozzle.

The gas stattion attendant made a comment about how scary it was and how they will be stricter now, and refuse to allow people on their cell phone to pump gas.

Um what? So someone wasn't paying attention and built up a static charge, managed to ignite the tank... so now... we are worried... about cell phones. Which is just great because you know that many of the people watching the news came to the story in the middle, or were not paying attention and now reasonably assume that it was caused by the cell phone and that cell phones at the pump are somehow dangerous....

sigh...

-Steve

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[Anonymous Coward]

Save your taser for the semiliterate. Taco, why was that comma in the wrong place? Come on, I know you can edit better than that. Here's how it should read:

A man in Korea was found dead at his workplace Wednesday morning, and his mobile phone battery was melted in his shirt pocket. No one knows for sure yet, but a doctor who examined the body said, "He sustained an injury that is similar to a burn in the left chest, and his ribs and spine were broken." We have heard of other dangerous battery products here on Slashdot."

The one comma in the damned piece wasn't needed, yet needed ones were missing.

And there should have been a period after "broken".

-slashdot punctuation police

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[karnal]

Man, that was truly an awesome site.

*spoiler*
Had me thinking "are they for real?" until I clicked "No thanks!"

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[Fizzl]

Damn... That's some serious spending by Nokias marketting department.

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[kd5ujz]

Its possible that someone tried to extinguish the fire with a 4X4 :P

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[TooMuchToDo]

Don't taze me bro!

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[Se7enLC]

A second doctor who could not be reached for comment concluded that the injuries sustained were consistent with those caused by leaving an electric fan on while sleeping.

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[lordofthechia]

Well the article said he was in a quarry. Maybe someone tried to put out the fire with a boulder?

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[DerekLyons]

The problem is - if that energy was released fast enough to break bones... They wouldn't have found 'burnt and melted' remains of a cell phone. They'd have found a corpse with a hole in its chest, and fragments of cellphone scattered across a fairly wide area.

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[Kintanon]

You have either a weird definition of the word Easily or you are incredibly frail and weak. Please begin taking calcium supplements if your bones are that brittle.

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[Technician]

Well, it's certainly demolished. Pictures.

Thanks for the great link. If you do failure analysis you would quickly spot from the photos that the phone didn't explode. In an explosion material is ejected at high speed. In other words, large parts of the phone should be missing, ejected with great force. The shirt has a burn. The phone shows some swelling and is a melted lump. There was no high energy explosion associated with this phone that could have cracked ribs.

Either the man fell and damaged the battery and started a thermal runaway condition, or the phone went into thermal runaway and the man in panic collided into something either causing a fall or as the result of a fall.

Remember for every action, there is an equal reaction in the opposite direction. For an object to explode in a shrt pocket with enough force to crack ribs, the force outward would have been equal as in a mass of the phone would have to have been ejected forward. From the photo, the phone is burnt, but intact.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I think he fell off a quarry wall, which killed him and also caused the battery in his phone to explode.

How anyone can blame the phone for this is anyones guess.

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[sm62704]

He was in a quarry. Seems to me the most likely scenario was he got hit by a big rock, square in the cell phone.

That said, LG is my 3rd least favorite company, right behind Sony and Microsoft, as I had an LG phone with horrible factory defects. I returned it for a replacement, and the replacement was worse.

So I'm conflicted in defending these guys, but I don't think this one was LG's fault.

Come to think of it, my least favorite device would be a Sony laptop running Windows, powered by an LG battery (shudder)

-mcgrew

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[drerwk]

Both assume that you're pretty sloppy with the nozzle.
The last time I set a pump lock and walked away from the nozzle to clean my window, there was some odd jolt in the line and the nozzle jumped out of the side of the car and spewed about a quart of gasoline under my car before I could stop the pump. I pushed the car away from the puddle hoping the catalytic converter was not going to ignite the vapors.
I didn't think I was being sloppy at the time.

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[sm62704]

I'm not sure one of those could even break the spine through the chest of a small child let alone adult.

Adult bones are a lot easier to break than childrens' bones. The older you get, the less pliant and more brittle the bone.

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[davidsyes]

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye?

You in a cocktail skirt, me in a suit
well that just isn't me.
You're used to wearing less
And now your house is a mess
And of for me, I fear...

(Marc Almond, Soft Cell)

----
Yoboseyo? Choesong hajiman Suh sonsaengnim chuseyo.

Chamkkan kidariseyo.

Ne, malssum haseyo...

Ah, Oh-day Suh-sonsaengni-seyo? A-Bye-bye...

-----
More from the Oldboys school?

------

"An LG official confirmed its product was involved in the accident but said the company would not comment directly on the accident because the cause was not confirmed."

Hell, of COURSE LG won't respond. "LG" means "Life's Good", and certainly not the case for the decedent.

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[sm62704]

OK. I admit that [wikipedia] is not an authoritative source

This is slashdot, you heretic! Attention slashdotters, we have a heretic! Stone him!

No wait, stone ME, I haven't had a toke in weeks...

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[scottv67]

I heard that the Mossad actually used that on a Palestinian terrorist once. Presumably he said "hello", and they said "goodbye" before sending the "detonate" command....

I would have gone for something a little more clever before sending the detonation command:

PT: "Hello?"
M: "deadpalestinianterroristsayswhat"
PT:"What?" KA-BOOM!

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[rkanodia]

Never used an LG phone, but I've never had any problems with my CD burner or refrigerator. Yes, refrigerator. Big-ass mother with aluminum case. It came with the apartment. What a world, eh?

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[Enigma2175]

Here is a Babelfish link for the page. My favorite quote from the page is from the "The world which it sees with statistics" sidebar - " ' The white mustache most ' 16% of the whole furnitures". I agree that the white mustache is important in home decor but 16% of the whole furnitures? Outrageous!

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[Grandiloquence]

If you remember article titles from 3 year old slashdot articles, it might be time to reacquaint yourself with the giant ball of fire floating in our sky. Or at least, you know, visit another website.

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[Anonymous Coward]

If you're too much of a noob to grok slashdot memes from the recent past, maybe you should refrain from commenting.

Or at least, you know, go comment on Digg where you belong.

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[Zanix]

I worked directly with LG at a Hyundai site in Alabama. They are some of the worst people I have ever worked with. I would request they help me fix a problem I would be having and they would say that they would do it. Next thing I know, the problem was still there and they'd be pointing fingers at me for the problem I requested them to help me fix saying it was my fault and my responsibility to fix it. They did this repeatedly and what was worse was that they were Korean and so was Hyundai. Nothing against Koreans specifically but it is human nature to trust someone you can understand over someone you can barely communicate with. They would start jabbering away in Korean and I knew the finger would invariably be pointed back at me. I will never buy an LG product.

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[Anonymous Coward]

If you remember article titles from 3 year old slashdot articles, it might be time to reacquaint yourself with the giant ball of fire floating in our sky. Or at least, you know, visit another website.

And your TV show references from 1994 are better? - "I, for one, welcome the impending removal of our old tyrannical police-state masters."
Pass the cocoa butter.

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[davidsyes]

I suspect he was killed by some conventional means, but then in the process of resisting, he was made to suffer cracked ribs, and such, but also during the process, maybe his assailant used some electrical wire or conductive pipe as a weapon. Somehow, the phone was caused to thermally discharge or unite with the/a conductive pole or live wires.

Where did this many REALLY work? Was he a plant/mole and somebody took him out because he came back early from a toilet visit or break? Did someone fire a dart or low-caliber metal-jacketed bullet and just happened to hit his phone? (I don't do failure analysis and didn't look at the picture for phone/bullet ballistics, but a powerful bullet that didn't break up but somehow violently discharged his phone might penetrate and ricochet to break ribs, etc. But, unless reports of a bullet emerge....)

Was this guy a courier en route and was intercepted, or did some ganger bangers just point-blank fire a BB gun at him and HAPPENED to hit his phone and short it out?

Or, was he screwing around with something electrical (touching or crawling on) and got zapped and then writhed so hard in a confined space that he fractured and broke bones? (Again, unless any report of him snooping or doing something in a bad area emerge....)

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is really fucking funny. I'd mod you up if I could!

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[davidsyes]

See my:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=373233&cid=21509595

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[loshwomp]

However we all know that improperly charged NiCd and Lithium ion batteries can explode by themselves

No we don't. This is a misrepresentation of the truth, and you're also confusing two issues. Let's clear some of that up. I don't claim to know everything, but I am an electric vehicle engineer, and I have considerable experience with enormous Nickel- and Lithium-chemistry batteries.

First of all, the fires caused by Li-Ion cells have nothing to do with charging. The failures are the result of tiny manufacturing defects that cause a microscopic short circuit to develop inside the cell over time. The short could appear while charging, discharging, or while sitting on the shelf. The short causes extreme local heating inside the cell, and since Lithium is quite flammable it often burns. It is absolutely a dangerous condition, but it is not an explosion in any sense of the word. The root cause (the manufacturing defects) are thankfully limited to high-capacity cutting edge cells.

The other issue: Any chemical battery (or cell, technically) will overheat and suffer ill effects if overcharged, or if subjected to excess charge or discharge current. Depending on the type of cell, this usually means fluid leaks or venting of gas or nothing at all. Calling this an explosion is a gross exaggeration in almost every case. Yes, some types (e.g. large format lead-acid batteries) could develop enough heat and pressure to erupt and spray some electrolyte (yes, it's acid, and no, it won't melt your eyeballs) but it's just fear mongering to associate this with explosives.

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[Cowclops]

Walking away from the nozzle would be "being sloppy."

Don't take your hand off the pump when you're filling it, for reasons as you have already discovered.

Most gas stations around here don't have the hands-free lock on the pump, so you HAVE to keep your hand on it. If you jam your gas cap in the pump, its just too easy to spill the gas.

As outlined above, its harder than you'd think to ignite the vapors with the overhead vapor recovery system, but its NOT hard to ignite a "puddle of gas on the ground."

The odds of blowing up are pretty low, but you don't really want to risk it just so you can save a minute washing the windshield while you fill up.

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[grendelkhan]

Fan death is no joke. When I lived in Korea, old people without air conditioning would die from fan death in the dead of summer every year. I know some people may scoff and say it was heat stroke, but I KNOW Better. I've seen fan death on the news with my own eyes.

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[statusbar]

Thanks for the clarification.

Explode was the wrong term. I have worked with R&D Cyclic Battery Charger devices which the battery companies used to conduct long term charge profile experimentation. 'Explode' was the term used but in reality they meant 'over heat'. The overheating however can cause flames/fire, but not an explosion.

--jeffk++

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[drerwk]

...its harder than you'd think to ignite the vapors...
No, probably not harder than I think, I spent a fair amount of time at Caltech trying to ignite various vapors. H2 is pretty easy, in fact it has a wide range of straight up detonate on ignition behavior. But most contained liquids won't...

and no, I don't walk away any more.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Strange that it only happens in Korea, though... possibly the diagnosis is socially determined?

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[letxa2000]

The odds of blowing up are pretty low, but you don't really want to risk it just so you can save a minute washing the windshield while you fill up.

I'd be more concerned with fueling my car during a thunderstorm than worrying about static charge building up because I let go of the pump during fueling. And I'd be no more concerned with fueling my car in a thunderstorm than doing anything else outside in a thunderstorm.

People worry so much about things that are entirely improbable... then they turn around and tail-gate someone at 70mph or talk on their cell phone while driving in rush hour traffic. It's silly.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I think I saw this on CSI. After removing a giant boulder from the man, investigators determined the only possible explanation was murder by an exploding cell phone battery. Investigators are still looking for the individual who tried to cover up the crime scene with a giant boulder.

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[flewp]

Note that I said energy density. This takes into account the volume, and cell phone batteries are rather small. So a cell phone battery will have a lot less energy than a grenade, just because it is smaller.
Looking at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Musee-de-lArmee-IMG_1039.jpg - it seems the volume of explosives in a hand grenade is rather small too. Granted, I'd assume most cell phone batteries are smaller, but would it be safe to assume it would only take 1/2 the explosive force of a grenade to break ribs and the spine?

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[Kaamoss]

I too, have had poor luck with my LG phone. I had one a while back, and after about 8 months, I'd charge the phone all night, and the next day an hour or two later, it would die. I exchanged battery after battery, but it was the same with all of them. I then exchanged the phone and still had the same problem. I like my Moto phones made in Ireland, you pay for cheap Taiwanese crap, and that's what you get with LG(less good).

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[statusbar]

About 10 years ago, a woman who lived in her Van did a good number on a gas station in my home town, Grand Forks, BC, Canada...

She pulled up to the gas station and started filling up her gas tank.

She did NOT put out the fire in her makeshift home made wood stove that was installed in her Van!

The fumes ignited and luckily no one was hurt, but the gas station was destroyed.

--jeffk++

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[Provocateur]

Give him time. He's practicing his URL links.

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[Blakey Rat]

That was an interesting [citation needed] Wikipedia article about a phenomenon I hadn't heard of before[citation needed]. I'm so glad [citation needed] we have a great reference [citation needed] like Wikipedia around for interesting [citation needed] factoids like this.

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[Megane]

Also, one of my pet peeves with 'snopes' is that they say that cell phones can't/don't cause gasoline vapour to explode

And they're right. What is causing the fires is people (typically women) getting back into their vehicles during fueling, generating static electricity in the process of getting in and out of the vehicle (especially in the winter when someone would want to go inside), then "lighting the torch" when they touch the nozzle. That they may be using their cell phones during this process is merely coincidence.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=grQYr507r_A

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[Anonymous Coward]

Damn you government stooges! Why not the most obvious:

3) He purchased the phone, cheap, from a dodgy korean style car boot sale, turned it on but was unable to connect to a valid South Korean cell network, went to work in the quarry, the phone made a brief connection to the North Korean cell network the phone originated from thanks to radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere, was instantly targeted by an overhead USAF hunter-killer flying assassin-bot hunting for Kim Jong Il's cell phone signal, and was instantly terminated by a pinpoint satellite-guided shot from the killbot's military-grade airzooka - breaking the bones as discovered whilst creating nothing more than an unusual zephyr outside the kill zone.

Just connect the dots, people.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[russotto]

The Mossad isn't stupid; they've read the Evil Overlord list. They sent "detonate" and THEN said "goodbye".

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Devistater]

Yeah there's a citation needed in the summary at the top. But you'll find plenty of references in the body of the wiki article.
Just because its not a factual cause of death (IMHO), doesn't mean you won't find lots of people beliving it. Apparently those people are mostly in Korea.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[BeBold]

The sidebar "Social Gun Toe" is also telling. Maybe this was actually a shooting death - the bullet fracturing ribs and spine while concurrently deflected by the hapless cell phone, which melted under the strain of the impact. Where is David Caruso when we need his ace detecting skills...

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[cecil_turtle]

Boards for breaking are designed to break - they are very dried out and have a weakness along the grain. It's not at all true that they are harder to break than ribs - that just makes some martial artists think that they can throw a single punch and break the "equivalent" of 8 ribs so they feel like they're cool. Go to Home Depot and buy a "green" piece of wood the same size as a breaking board and try to break it with a punch. Let me know how that works out for you after you get back from the hospital. Ribs are more similar to this - they are somewhat flexible, and it's nearly impossible to concentrate a punch on a single rib - it will be spread across multiple ribs, especially because of the tissue and muscle that interlaces and supports them. The article you link to actually explains this as one of the reasons that the bones in your hand don't break when breaking a board.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[cromar]

I've banged up my knuckles on harder things than wood. A rib, I firmly believe, is easier to break than breaking boards for sale. I would be glad if you could find some references. I know what I can infer from my experience, but to be honest, I can't find much good supporting literature.

Have you broken this sort of thing before? I know my ribs feel softer than those boards.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[rmckeethen]

OMG -- that is *so* fucking funny! This YouTube video though is just insane... it's like the fan is going to pounce on that guy in the graphic and, you know, KILL HIM DEAD! Run for the hills everyone -- the fans are gonna get us! Run, I tell you, run, RUN!

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Rosyna]

The root cause (the manufacturing defects) are thankfully limited to high-capacity cutting edge cells.

And since electric vehicles don't have the same weight/power/small size requirements as a cell phone battery, their cells don't have to be nearly as dense or "high-capacity".

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[cecil_turtle]

It's exactly that softness that I believe makes the ribs harder to break than a dried out, brittle board. I have broken some boards with punches and it certainly didn't feel good on my knuckles, but I've hit people in the chest, even floating ribs, equally hard and nothing broke.

I don't have a ton of experience to draw on (a few years), but in the martial arts I've seen a couple of people who got "cracked" ribs, who take it easy for a month or two while the ribs heal, but that's different than "broken" ribs. But I don't have any supporting references either. I know when doing some jujitsu with 250+ lb. guys that I can feel my chest compress pretty significantly when they're on it, it feels to me like my entire rib cage is flexing.

I guess to me it just seems to be more of an issue of brittleness than putting an object on a force gauge and seeing what it takes to break it. I don't know what the total amount of chemical energy in a cell phone battery equates to if it were all released at once, but it seems unlikely a small battery could break ribs, let alone a spine, to kill a man.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[SnowZero]

You must be new here.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[SnowZero]

A small pack of high-grade explosives up against your ear is not the same thing as a battery in your shirt pocket. This sounds like a Cialis commercial explaining why it's better than Viagra.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you've got it wrong;

IN SOVIET RUSSIA, bro tases You !

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Anonymous Coward]

Come to think of it, my least favorite device would be a Sony laptop running Windows, powered by an LG battery
Then try imagining an LG laptop, powered by a Microsoft battery and running a Sony Operating System....

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[mpe]

Mythbusters actually did good work on this one. You've got to have the fuel-air mix just right, or even a spark plug won't light it. There are really only two places where the cell could ignite fumes. One is right next to the fuel port, and the other is on the ground in a puddle of gasoline.

Or from the filling nozzle if it has fuel coming out of it...
The Mythbusters have actually tried quite a few times to get car fuel tanks to explode. The most recent was with the "Trail of Fire" where even deliberatly trying to get the right fuel/air mix in the tank nothing much happened. Unlike in the movies it is very hard to make a tank explode...

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[mpe]

The last time I set a pump lock and walked away from the nozzle to clean my window, there was some odd jolt in the line and the nozzle jumped out of the side of the car and spewed about a quart of gasoline under my car before I could stop the pump. I pushed the car away from the puddle hoping the catalytic converter was not going to ignite the vapors. I didn't think I was being sloppy at the time.

That'll be why in most cases there is no such thing as a "pump lock". Instead you have a trigger which when depressed allows fuel to flow, when released fuel stops flowing.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[mpe]

About 10 years ago, a woman who lived in her Van did a good number on a gas station in my home town, Grand Forks, BC, Canada...
She pulled up to the gas station and started filling up her gas tank.
She did NOT put out the fire in her makeshift home made wood stove that was installed in her Van!
The fumes ignited and luckily no one was hurt, but the gas station was destroyed.

Were there no warnings on the pumps about no naked flames (and no smoking)? Hope she got sent the bill for the damage.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[drerwk]

That'll be why in most cases there is no such thing as a "pump lock". Arizona when I lived there, California (AFAICR) and Massachusetts where I live now have pump locks, which are intended to allow fuel to flow unattended and to stop when there is back pressure from a full tank.
In my experience they are more common than not.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[jacquesm]

so, how is that for coincidence ? wildly off-topic but I actually had say hello / wave goodbye playing...

time to fire up the infinite improbability drive I guess.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[jacquesm]

hilarious... the 14 year old kid you quote there to underpin your argument is a friend of mine.

Hey Gus, if you're reading this you are now the official authority on battery energy density :)

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[statusbar]

Someone who puts a wood stove in her van and lives in the woods in it is probably not that bright, would not have much money and would also not have a mailing address for them to send the bill to...

jeffk

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[harrkev]

I explicitly stated that it was NOT authoritative. But then I checked the Wikipedia entry on energy density and found that lithium batteries are reasonably close (within a factor of 2) of some explosives.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[sm62704]

My guess is that they use "refurbished" items to replace ones that come from the factoty with defects, which is a pretty bad idea from a PR point of view. Had the original not been defective they would have had a repeat customer. Had the replacement not also been defective they likely still would have had a repeat customer. But as the saying goes, "fool you once, shame on you. Fool me twoice, shame on me." They replaced a defective phone with an even more defective phone, I'd be a fool to buy another product from them.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[sm62704]

I finally traded the LG for a motorola and didn't have any problems at all... until I dropped it in a toilet.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[Ogive17]

I've never broken a bone in my life and I played football, baseball and soccer. But the ribs and the collar bone can break easily if hit just right.

Heck, just last week my friend's father-in-law broke three ribs of a friend of mine with a simple arm tackle.. and this was a guy who got out of the army just a few years ago.. so he'd definitely gone through contact before.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[ZzzzSleep]

Turns out it was a cover up. There's more information at the Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/30/1196037111096.html

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[zippthorne]

But what about C8H18?

And that famous video of someone dropping a lit cigarette into a puddle of gasoline?

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[tehcyder]

he fell on a table edge and broke is back

I had no idea tables were lethal weapons.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[drerwk]

Hi - I'm not sure I know what your question is. I am agreeing with one of the superposts that it is hard to ignite many liquids, the range of air/fuel ratio that supports combustion is usually pretty narrow; I'm just saying it is not harder than I think, because I know it is hard. H2:Air is explosive over a range of about 20%-80% H2, this is huge. Gasoline by contrast has a very narrow range. Further, a graph of detonation pressures shows that the effects of a hydrogen detonation will be essentially the same for much of the explosive range (20 to 80 volume %).[15]

New pocket protectors?

[garcia]

At least he didn't have it in his pants pocket... He might have survived but his future children would not have.

Re:New pocket protectors?

[zoogies]

"At least"? ....now he won't have future children. Yeah, 'at least' he didn't have it in his pants pocket, right?

Well?

[Frosty Piss]

A man in Korea...

Was he old?

Re:Well?

[Mr. Underbridge]

Was he old?

Yes. However, he will no longer be using email.

Re:Well?

[Mister Whirly]

Which is too bad, because he missed the email warning about exploding cell phones...

differences

[gEvil (beta)]

The difference between real media and slashdot:

"Exploding cell phone battery may have killed South Korean man: officials"
vs
"Exploding Cell Phone Battery Kills"

Can anyone spot the difference in the meanings?

Re:differences

[dintech]

And be sure to click a few ads on your way out...

Re:differences

[MightyYar]

You pretty much nailed why I don't feel bad running noscript/adblock here.

Re:differences

[noidentity]

They just left off the end of the headline. It could have been "Exploding Cell Phone Battery Kills?" or even "Exploding Cell Phone Battery Kills: 0" Give the hard-working Slashdot editors the benefit of the

Re:differences

[$1uck]

Honestly I don't see the difference between the too, because I read them the same way. Any time I read or hear something second hand, I know for a fact that the information is being relayed to me through an unreliable and prejudiced device known as a human.

So maybe to you those headlines mean to different things to me they mean one thing: someone somewhere thinks a cellphone battery killed someone.

I'm inclined to think that person is an idiot.

Re:differences

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, and where is the personal insult that would have been pouring if it was zonk or some other than taco, eh? ;-)

Oh well. Taco, you suck like the rest of them. But that never stopped us from coming here and posting so...

Re:differences

[ByOhTek]

a few CNN headlines for fun...

# Hunt for missing wife focuses on blue barrel
    Police officer's wife found in blue barrel, barrel lost.

# CNN/YouTube debate to be circusy smackdown
    CNN + YouTube sponsoring Clown Wrestling Federation

# Vick to pay $1 million for dog care
    Dog fighting man buys expensive poodle

# Israel, Palestinians: Peace is possible
    Pease agreements signed by Israel and Palestinians

# Deputies killed by fellow officer in chase
    Police officer goes on rampage

# Ticker: Romney abortion claim called 'offensive'
    Romney claims he's not an abortion that lived

# Robo-armor gives soldiers super strength Video
    Super soldiers kill all in their path

# WWII-era bomb explodes in blueberry field Video
    British/German war on the horzion

# 6-year-old boy sleeps with 20-foot python Video
    THINK OF THE CHILDREN

It's actually a fun game to go to a news site and "slashdot" the headlines.

Re:differences

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm inclined to think you are a smartass.

Re:differences

[kidcharles]

In the submitter's defense, the allowed length for submission titles is not very long. I've submitted a few stories and it is quite difficult to formulate a good title while keeping all of the relevant information (like the veracity of a story, for example). Your desired title for example would definitely not fit. That said, I agree that this story does not pass the smell test.

Re:differences

[Anonymous Coward]

I am inclined to think you are the idiot! The number 2 is spelt two, not too or to.

Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[InvisblePinkUnicorn]

So it did nothing more than cause a burn on his chest, but the pressure was high enough to break his ribs and spine? Does anything seem odd about this?

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[matria]

More likely a fall, which broke the ribs and spine and damaged the phone which "exploded". My husband fell in a similar situation, landed on his left side, but had his large walkie-talkie in his pocket. It cracked his ribs and destroyed the walkie-talkie; the fall would have smashed his ribs if he hadn't had it in his pocket.

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[InsaneProcessor]

Just another sensationalizing headline. This is so much B.S.

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[interiot]

I think we have a winner for the most reasonable explanation for this otherwise implausible story.

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[jez9999]

My husband fell in a similar situation, landed on his left side, but had his large walkie-talkie in his pocket. It cracked his ribs and destroyed the walkie-talkie; the fall would have smashed his ribs if he hadn't had it in his pocket.

What? Was his walkie-talkie made out of foam, or something?

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, most likely there was a fall involved, but a fall that damages the cellphone in the man's front pocket doesn't explain how his spine got broken. Breaking someone's spine by a blow to the front of the body is really really hard.

It may be that the cellphone battery failed and was burning him so badly he reacted violently and fell and broke his back. Being in a quarry there is plenty of opportunities to fall from a height.

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[SargentDU]

I am sure his walkie talkie was made of something, most likely hard plastic, but don't quote me on that. :)

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[orclevegam]

Or he could have bounced a couple times on the way down. Who's to say how many impacts he received. It may very well have impacted first on his back breaking his spine, then hit facing down cracking his ribs and smashing his cellphone.

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh my god! A woman is posting on /.! Someone page CmdrTaco!!!!

Re:Only burned his chest, but broke his spine?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd just like to point out that, had your husband NOT fallen on his walkie-talkie, and instead landed entirely on his chest, he would've suffered less damage. Not more.

You see, the walkie-talkie creates a pressure point, when he falls, the energy isn't being distributed throughout the entire side of his body, instead the body basically falls on the smaller area of the walkie-talkie. It's the same sort of reason that a knife can slide through your arm more easily than a flashlight can. The area of his body in contact with the walkie-talkie is taking the brunt of the fall.

Oblig verbing noun...

[Sta7ic]

In Soviet Russia, the cell phone hangs you up!

Re:Oblig verbing noun...

[cromar]

In Soviet Russia, cell phone has your number.

Re:Oblig verbing noun...

[BetaBlue]

In Soviet Russia, the music has your cell phone.

In a Related Story

[UncleWilly]

Just in time for Christmas!
Kevlar-Asbestos Universal Cell Phone Carrier
$29.99 plus S&H

Re:In a Related Story

[Anonymous Coward]

So you'll die of mesothelioma from the asbestos instead of the battery exploding. Nice.

I know what happened

[sokoban]

He had one of those phones you shake to see how much liquid is in them, which indicates battery life. His was empty, so he filled it up with gasoline.

Shouldn't that be "allegedly kills"?

[Chris Lindquist]

Heck, even post notes that "No one knows for sure yet..."

Re:Shouldn't that be "allegedly kills"?

[snowraver1]

You must be new here... Half the fun of slashdot is being shocked at the stories, then after you actually read them, you become shocked at either:

a) How the editor missed that spelling mistake.
b) Why this is even news
c) How blatently misleading the title is.
d) the fact that now you have nothing to read at work, and have to wait for the next misleading post.

Re:Shouldn't that be "allegedly kills"?

[PhxBlue]

Yes. Or "apparently kills." Saying the cellphone battery killed the man -- without a disclaimer word such as "apparently" or "allegedly" -- sets Slashdot up for a libel suit from the cell phone manufacturer if they lose sales as a result of the /. article and investigation finds it wasn't the cell phone battery.

This is one good reason why anyone who calls himself a journalist should know one of the major wire services' stylebooks, e.g., the Associated Press Stylebook, inside and out. It's handy for little tips like grammar, spelling and "how to avoid being sued for libel."

Re:Shouldn't that be "allegedly kills"?

[orclevegam]

e) all of the above.

Fan?

[Ecuador]

Are we certain he was not in a closed room with a fan?

Re:Fan?

[caldaan]

I hadn't actually heard of this belief, but it would seem that a similar thought process or cognitive disonance is at play here.

Like someone else said, people dying only from blast damage die of internal organ damage, something that would show up in an autopsy. The bones are strong enough to withstand the shockwave without breaking. A laptop battery exploding in a pocket can not break the spine while leaving a simple burn on the mans chest.

So why would any reputable doctor think of such a thing? Well if you believe that leaving a fan on in a closed room decreases the temperature of the room, you will believe almost anything.

There is a device, I forget what it is called but it can actually chill air with a simple air vortex. The caviat is that a hot air stream is also produced out the back end. Which make sense because the conservation of energy is required. Plus, no one is going to sleep near one of these things because they are too freaking loud.

Re:Fan?

[Radical Moderate]

Thanks for that link. Says a lot about the Korean government and medical community that they feed this BS to the public with no science to back it up. Not that things are much better here in the US of A.

Re:Fan?

[TheoMurpse]

Interesting, but I'm very confused by this, saying that the government has warned that having a fan on in the summer can lead to hypothermia. Is this for real? I've slept all night with a fan trained on me (cheaper than air conditioning) on hot days for years, and I'm pretty sure I've never died of hypothermia.

To me, that passage reads like the US government issuing a report stating that people should not go to Lover's Lane because visits to makeout points lead to a disproportionate number of incidents where lovers look at the car door and find a hook caught on the handle.

Re:Fan?

[Glonoinha]

So the guy had a small burn in his chest, and was all busted up inside?

Super-cool (liquid nitrogen style) a twelve-gauge slug bullet-mold full of water, get ice-slug.
Put ice-bullet in 12-gauge shell on top of the black-powder and primer. Put in shotgun. Shoot this guy at point blank range, maybe even shoot him through his cell phone.

Burn marks on the dead body, shattered rib/spine, no bullet (it melts pretty quick.)
Blame it on the cell phone.

(And yes, I'm for hire.)

Re:Fan?

[orclevegam]

Mythbusters did it. Busted. The gases from the cartridge melt the bullet before it leaves the barrel. All you end up with is the normal unburned powder and a bit of water vapor coming out of the barrel. Of course, the force of the gases leaving the barrel from close enough can still cause some damage, but probably not enough to kill you.

Re:Fan?

[orclevegam]

Yeah, it's a very common belief over there apparently. They even sell special fans that have timers to turn themselves off in case you fall asleep with them on. It's also been reported that the newspapers over there run stories fairly often blaming deaths on people who fell asleep with fans running.

Re:Fan?

[Minwee]

Well they're certainly not going to blame anything as unpleasant as drug or alcohol abuse. That kind of thing never happens to sweet, innocent South Koreans. It must be electric fans that are killing them.

Re:Fan?

[geobeck]

Of course, the force of the gases leaving the barrel from close enough can still cause some damage, but probably not enough to kill you.

Tell that to Jon-Erik Hexum. Okay, so that gun had wadding in it, but it was mainly the force of the gas that did him in.

Re:Fan?

[orclevegam]

Tell that to Jon-Erik Hexum. Okay, so that gun had wadding in it, but it was mainly the force of the gas that did him in.

Yeah, that would be one of the exceptions to that probably. In addition to the wadding, it was also apparently stuck against his temple, and it was the fact that it shattered his skull that did him in. The fact that he fired a gun with a blank in it at his temple shows he didn't really understand that blanks can still be deadly at close range. It's possible to kill with one, just not likely. Had he instead held the gun a foot from his temple, or pointed it at something other than his head he would have most likely lived.

I really doubt this

[smellsofbikes]

The guy worked in a quarry. He's found with broken ribs and a broken spine. Having suffered broken ribs and a broken spine, myself, I can say that it takes an *enormous* amount of force to do that. If the cellphone had exploded with sufficient force to break vertebrae, there'd be a big hole where his chest was and no sign of the cellphone.
Much, much more likely is that he was struck by something large, that broke his back and ribs, and also crushed the cellphone, rupturing the battery compartment and making the battery melt from short-circuiting itself.

People killed by dynamite blasts don't have broken vertebrae, even when the shock wave has torn their hearts loose from their arteries.

Re:I really doubt this

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, his cellphone shorted, he panicked, jumped, whatever, and fell, breaking his bones. He was in a quarry, which I always picture as a big hole in the ground.

Re:I really doubt this

[mfender9]

Isn't it equally likely that (since we was working in a quarry) his battery melted in his pocket, and the shock made him fall backwards onto a rock? Or off a rockface? TFA is sparse on details but if his spine was broken I would expect a fall to have been involved.

Re:I really doubt this

[Saxerman]

So now we got a huge guy theory, and a serial crusher theory. Top notch.

Re:I really doubt this

[smellsofbikes]

>So now we got a huge guy theory, and a serial crusher theory.

I've had dates like that.

Re:I really doubt this

[jollyreaper]

People killed by dynamite blasts don't have broken vertebrae, even when the shock wave has torn their hearts loose from their arteries. Wow, that's enough to make my cheerios turn sour. That's almost as bad as "unplugging" in motorcycle accidents, where the neck is not capable of supporting the deceleration of the head plus helmet, thus the body remains with the bike at the point of impact while the head goes flying.

The human body has some really squicky failure modes.

Re:I really doubt this

[t0rkm3]

But he's really smart, this serial crusher, so he takes out the guy with the head wound first figuring that the other guy's going no where.

Re:I really doubt this

[smellsofbikes]

There's dispute about what in a shock wave actually kills a person. I'm not saying that people who know what they're talking about are disputing it, but those of us who just read stuff online don't do such a credible job. However, what I've read is that it's the near-instantaneous acceleration across your chest that actually kills you. Same with falling from a tower: it's the sheer unsupported volume of the chest/abdomen that allows stuff to move enough to tear loose and kill you from the shock and blood loss. The brain does the same thing to a lesser extent, but since it's so much more delicate, even small relative displacements between the brain and skull can leave people with serious cognitive problems.

I've read that hanging is a similar problem to the motorcycle thing: not enough drop and people slowly asphyxiate, the right amount and their necks break, and a bit more yet and their heads come off. Ugh.

Re:I really doubt this

[seniorcoder]

You suffered broken ribs & spine and yet you are still talking to the media?
I thought my family indicated last time that behavior like that can damage your health.

Beating out of your chest

[4D6963]

Laptop batteries, and now cell phone batteries? Just wait until pacemaker batteries start to explode..

Re:Beating out of your chest

[Kazymyr]

Good thing they don't make plutonium-powered pacemakers anymore.
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/Miscellaneous/pacemaker.htm

Re:Beating out of your chest

[orclevegam]

Try getting one of those through airport security.

Re:Beating out of your chest

[Anonymous Coward]

The ARSE [sourceforge.net]. Sound -> Image -> New Sound Offtopic, but I'd definitely change that name unless it was intentionally rude :)

Re:Beating out of your chest

[4D6963]

Offtopic, but I'd definitely change that name unless it was intentionally rude :)

Rest assured that it was purely intentional. Turns out it's a great way for people to remember about it. Maybe I should work in marketing, although I'm pretty sure there are limits to how successful you can get by renaming every product you're trying to promote into references to genital and gastrointestinal organs.

Re:Beating out of your chest

[orospakr]

Actually...

I spent about half a day a few weeks ago Googling and pouring through various news aggregation sites trying to find your program again. I had seen it somewhere this summer and promptly forgot the name. It took me forever to find it because I hadn't seen it in an article, but rather your sig instead (probably).

And yes, I was rather amused when I figured it out. :)

He was found in a quarry...

[gillbates]

It is also possible that he was struck by a piece of heavy equipment, which, in addition to breaking his spine and ribs, also ruptured the cell phone battery. The ruptured battery then shorted out and melted.

I find it very difficult to believe that a cell phone battery could contain sufficient pressure break a person's spine and ribs. Unless, of course, said battery was packed with explosives. (And yes, this has been done before - by the Israelis).

Re:He was found in a quarry...

[Frosty Piss]

(And yes, this has been done before - by the Israelis)

I'm assuming that this is the part that caused the parent to be modded "Flamebait". But if it's true, can that be? If it's a factual statement that contains no political innuendo, than how can it be "Flamebait" except to people whit exceptionally thin skin (in which case they shouldn't be surfing Slashdot anyway)?

Re:He was found in a quarry...

[Anonymous Coward]

how can it be "Flamebait"

It's flamebait because even if it is true, it has nothing at all to do with the Korean guy, and the only reason to mention it specifically would be as bait for pro/anti-israeli flames.

If it had been a bomb in his cellphone, the news would be "bomb in cellphone kills Korean dude", I'd hope they'd be able to tell the difference.

Re:He was found in a quarry...

[gillbates]

Actually, I was under the impression that the Israelis were proud of the fact that they killed a person with this technique. I mentioned it because I anticipated that there would be those who would claim that a cellphone was too small to contain enough explosive to kill anyone, not because I wanted to start an Israeli-Palestinian flame fest.

Hmmm... But now that I think about it, is it possible to suicide-bomb an internet discussion? Could someone flame in such a flagrant manner as to destroy their karma to the extent that they no longer virtually exist? Would getting your IP banned from /. count? Or could it be argued that because /. banned you, that it wasn't true virtual suicide, but rather, virtual homicide? I digress...

Re:He was found in a quarry...

[hey!]

Well, I'm sure a good sized cell phone battery has the energy to do this kind of damage; 1100 maH is enough energy to lift a 300 pound weight almost ten feet. The problem is coaxing the thing to give up that energy fast enough and in just the right way.

If you asked me, in absence of any other evidence, whether such an explanation were likely, I'd say off the cuff, no. If the injuries were consistent with an exploding cell battery, if there were no other injuries, and if the circumstances in which he was found provided no means for him to get precisely those injuries (say, a fatal fall followed by a secondary cell battery explosion), I would not dismiss the possibility of an extremely unusual battery explosion.

Battery safety is a real concern as battery manufacturing is outsourced to China, with its lax attitudes toward product safety. I don't expect many people will be killed by exploding batteries even so, but it may not be altogether impossible. It is certainly possible for cell phone battery failure to result in deaths, although not necessarily by exploding. All it would have to do is catch fire on you while you drive.

Re:He was found in a quarry...

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if you figured out some way to slashdot yourself in such a way as to derail an entire discussion.

Re:He was found in a quarry...

[Anonymous Coward]

I almost exploded by the funniness of the idea of suicide bomming an internet discussion.

Re:He was found in a quarry...

[Artifakt]

the only reason to mention it specifically would be as bait for pro/anti-israeli flames.

Because people never mention something that actually happened and give a few details about who and where just to make it easier for other people to verify it. Honest people never say "it happened in Detroit, at the Hilton", to make it easier to check their story. Only people with ulterior motives do that, right?
    You are demonizing your debate opponent.

I've heard this one!

[Bluesman]

The answer is, he was hit forcefully on the back with a club made of ice, which shattered. He fell on one of the shattered pieces, piercing the cell phone battery causing it to melt. The ice melted, leaving no evidence of what had happened...

I know why

[Tyten]

Probably didn't pay his bill.

Lithium

[Spy der Mann]

It probably was a lithium battery.

The point isn't whether people shouldn't puncture their cellphones, but that the cellphone should have some kind of protection for when these accidents happen. Sigh, I remember the old times when the worst thing that happened was that you got an acid burn in your skin...

Re:Lithium

[snowraver1]

Ahh, the good 'ol times... When a cell phone LITERALLY weighed as much as a brick, and yet the charge still lasted only a day.

Doesn't seem plausable

[demopolis]

Ok, say it did actually explode. I can see having burn marks on the chest and MAYBE a broken/bruised rib, but a shock wave from the explosion traveling through the body cavity and breaking the spine? I'm not a physicist, but that really doesn't seem plausible given the source of the explosion.

Koreans are small....

[jflo]

I will say this, via my experience living in Korea (over a year in length for the Army)... koreans are actually much smaller than the average american, and most of them have to have the biggest cell phone they can find....... now it is unlikely that a bettery could've caused damage this severe, but its not impossible considering some of the dangerous things koreans do. Nothing is funnier than seeing an old Korean man driving a Kina Bongo filled 10 feet w/ garbage above the cabin, cruising an 100 kph. Personally, I think the old man was drinking Sojo a little to hard, fell down some stairs, and along the way, the cell phone blew up.

Also today

[moogied]

A man was found dead in Canada. He died from apparent bullet wounds to the skull.

Police have a sony laptop in custody.

Re:Also today

[lysse]

Yeah, those VAIOs can be vindictive little bastards.

Actually

[Poromenos1]

unless this was a very, very small man. He was actually found in the pocket of another, normal-sized man.

Re:Actually

[kalirion]

Dennis Kucinich strikes again!

Re:Actually

[lysse]

So that's what happened to David Steel...

Re:Actually

[blindd0t]

unless this was a very, very small man.

-and-

He was actually found in the pocket of another, normal-sized man.

Well, what would you do if some guy was in your pocket? Would you consider envy to be a sufficient excuse, or would you break his spine like in one swift Steven Seagal-like move?

Re:Actually

[TerranFury]

He was actually found in the pocket of another, normal-sized man.

He sounds like one of our American politicians!

Re:Actually

[porcupine8]

I would not make jokes about Dennis Kucinich if I were you.

In fact, I would not make jokes about any other thousand-year-old elf either, as they likely have powers beyond our imagination.

Re:Actually

[Darby]

In fact, I would not make jokes about any other thousand-year-old elf either, as they likely have powers beyond our imagination.

Oh come on. Do you have any evidence that he's actually that old?
Even elves are young at some point.

Re:Actually

[WoodTheMighty]

The name of the man was 'Suh'. I am going to check some Johnny Cash lyrics and get to the bottom of this.

Virus

[oman_]

This is CERTAINLY a virus sent by the North Korean government.

Juche.jar

Murder?

[Bruce Perens]

We've heard of cell-phone bombs before, with an explosive device taking the place of part of the battery, but they are usually used to deliver a killing blow to the victim's head, not chest. They were also more practical before the phones got quite as small as they are now.

This is just silly. The guy got killed, and his phone got smashed too.

Bruce

Re:Murder?

[Raul654]

You're thinking of Yahya Ayyash (I know because I wrote most of Wikipedia's article on him)

Remote exploit

[athloi]

In the future: hackers find out that re-programming a phone to radically fluctuate its power consumption in the same pattern that in flashing lights induces seizures in gamers, within five minutes, causes the battery to detonate and eliminate the target.

Five minutes later, government denies it has *ever* heard of such a thing, and it would never do it, even if it knew how.

Five minutes later, the reporter who broke the story dies in a mysterious cell phone explosion.

Note to Manufacturing

[Nom du Keyboard]

Note to Manufacturing:

Take the semtex out of the battery casing and blame any problems on China. Sorry guys, but that's the wrong kind of plastic.

Note to Self

[Greyfox]

Start keeping my cell phone in a co-worker's pocket...

*SLOSHING THE CHEMICALS AROUND*

[LiquidCoooled]

Do not slosh the chemicals around to see if your battery is flat.
You could cause massive injury if the binary chemicals mix.

Yeah... Newton's Law

[isa-kuruption]

For every force, there is an equal and opposite force...

So the exploded battery broke his ribs and spine, but couldn't muster enough force to rip the shirt pocket? Give me a break.

Re:Yeah... Newton's Law

[lazyforker]

Must have been a really good shirt.

Re:Yeah... Newton's Law

[syousef]

So the exploded battery broke his ribs and spine, but couldn't muster enough force to rip the shirt pocket? Give me a break.

Would you prefer a spine, or a rib? Nice pocket you have there. Would be a pity if someone were to place a deadly cell phone in it.

Re:Yeah... Newton's Law

[commandlinegamer]

Beehive charge - conical explosive designed to explosive in one direction.

Man in quarry dies and it was his phone?

[192939495969798999]

Phone explosion was probably caused by some 50-ton rock hitting the guy in the chest. I don't see how anything as small as a phone battery could shatter ribs unless it was traveling at a tremendous rate of speed, i.e. if someone replaced his battery with c-4 and detonated it, then maybe.

Quick! To the Mythbusters lab!

[sizzzzlerz]

Sounds like a case for Jamie and Adam

Alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

Cell phone battery explodeds and causes him to have a fatal accident. This would be like having the cell phone battery blow up while driving down the freeway, you wipe out and get into a fatal accident. The battery didn't cause you to die but it was the cause of you dieing.

aw man

[Anonymous Coward]

aw man. in NZ we only had a person who only woke up to his cell exploding. all he got was a fright and soem battery shaped singe marks on his carpet.

Stupid Stupid Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

This is just stupid. I've had a LG cell phone
for years and I've never had any pr

Warning: lame pun ahead

[Anonymous Coward]

A serious defect like this will surely end someone's Korea at LG Electronics...

Next episode on

[holywarrior21c]

Mythbusters. Yeah. I can already see Jamie blowing up manikins. sweet.

Re:Next episode on

[orclevegam]

Mythbusters. Yeah. I can already see Jamie blowing up manikins. sweet. Wait, how is that different from every other episode of mythbusters?... poor buster, he never gets a break.

Alien anyone?

[CaligarisDesk]

So the alien is about to explode through his chest, breaking his ribs and spine, but stops short. Somehow, it gets cut and spews its acid blood, burning the man's skin. It seeps to the man's pocket where it explodes the cell phone, taking the alien's remains with it. Expect an expedition into the quarry to determine the location of the face-huggers.

I can't believe no one has pointed out

[geekoid]

That the man worked in a quarry and the injury may have been caused by something else... ;)

Re:I can't believe no one has pointed out

[calebt3]

It's been mentioned dozens of times already.

Re:I can't believe no one has pointed out

[butterwise]

I can't believe no one pointed out that no one pointed that out already.

More 'n likely

[Anonymous Coward]

Given the sparse facts in the report, it sounds more likely to be some sort of electrical accident with large amperage. Either lightning or a catastrophic short in some sort of electricity supply at the quarry would be a possibility. The melted cell phone would be incidential to the event (i.e., a result of, but not the cause). It is likely to be one of the sources of contacts due to the least resistance.

Yeah, right, the cell phone did it.

[richardkelleher]

If I found a dead body in a mine that had broken ribs and spine, my first suspect would be the cell phone. I certainly wouldn't consider the possibility of something damaging the cell phone battery and causing it to short and overheat causing the burn while at the same time also breaking bones in the guys body. You know there is no heavy equipment or explosives in mines that could cause damage to people.

Scratching Chin

[ajs318]

It's difficult to believe that a telephone battery could store enough energy to do that much damage. They tend to get hot, then the plastic softens and releases the pressure. Ask anyone who blows up batteries for kicks :)

It's much more plausible -- especially in a quarry, where there tend to be things like explosives, heavy plant and big lumps of rock -- that some other accident broke his ribs and spine, and did for his mobe at the same time.

Re:Scratching Chin

[Krazymage]

I hear during the autopsy, monkeys spontaneously flew from his butt. More on that in tomorrow's edition.

It is probably flamebait

[SmallFurryCreature]

First clue, no link to prove it. Second clue, totally unrelated to the story. Third clue, wrapping explosives around a cellphone won't do shit. Fourth clue, cellphones as part of a remote detonator system have been used widely, by terrorists. They are highly unreliable, why should one of the most advanced military forces use it? There are better methods.

It is probably flamebait because of the way he mentions it. Trying to inject an unrelated matter into the discussion.

Re:It is probably flamebait

[NiteShaed]

Well, flamebait or not (although I think not), it would appear to be true.

He did not die on site ...

[Anonymous Coward]

From the http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7117014.stm

"The explosion apparently drove rib splinters through his heart and he died after emergency surgery."

Re:He did not die on site ...

[Anonymous Coward]

0/10 for comprehension. That was somebody else.

Even scarier...

[s_p_oneil]

I hear the FBI can make that happen remotely. ;-)

In Soviet Russsia...

[llamalad]

In Soviet Russia YOU kill exploding laptop battery.

Which was it?

[Xeno555]

A melted anything would look ALOT different than if it exploded.

Re:Which was it?

[orclevegam]

Someone posted a picture of the guys shirt and the remains of the phone. It's mostly intact except for the battery compartment, which as someone else pointed out, in conjunction with your post, means the battery overheated and melted it's case, it did not explode, and all it's energy was released in a thermal reaction, not a kinetic one. So yeah, cell phone pretty much cleared of all charges at this point.

I would think more likely...

[etiam.maior]

...that if indeed the 'melting/exploding battery' came _first_, then he likely snapped his OWN ribs and spine reacting to it. i've seen such things come from grand mal seizures, and the involuntary muscle spasms that would come from such surprising agony right over one's heart could more than cause such breakages.

Newton's Laws?

[eck011219]

I am certainly no physicist (I took a year of high school physics and watch a lot of Mythbusters -- that's the extent of my education in this area), but it seems to me that he would have had to be wearing a suit of armor. Let's assume (wrongly, but for sake of argument) that the phone could blow up with enough force to break his spine from the front. If I understand how it all works (and again, see my credentials above and add grain of salt), he'd either have to be wearing a suit of armor to contain the blast or the phone would have to be heavier than him to not just blow out the front of his shirt. Am I right? Then again, a suicide bomber isn't wearing 180 pounds of explosives ... maybe I'm wrong.

Anyhow, this is only one of a hundred things wrong with this story (starting with the title), but it still seems like the phone might scorch you and maybe even break a rib but it would basically propel itself away from you like a rocket. Now if it suddenly got very hot and made you start dancing about frantically in, say, a quarry, I can see (as can others around here) how that might cause a combination of injuries that would sound like what they have. But Kim Hoon, the doctor credited in the article with this innovative conclusion, has no future in forensics (hopefully).

Re:Newton's Laws?

[chmod a x mojo]

It may not be likely, but it is possible, perhaps he was laying on his desk for a nap... or leaning against a filing cabinet?
not to mention fluid dynamics and pneumatics can do some very interesting thing with the force of a blast. This combined with possible poor nutrition / calcium deficiency could allow the breaks in the spine.

Not to mention, while mythbusters may be interesting they are _NOT_ very scientific, they are a TV show and they miss quite a few possibilities. That said much of what they do test is well researched, yet they can't test all of the possibilities. Plus who is to say that some of the myths that they have "busted" could have been freak accidents, like some of the things on Ripley's believe it or not?

Re:Newton's Laws?

[zippthorne]

Yes, you're not quite right. The magnitude of the force depends on the distance over which it is applied. Since the phone is restricted in one direction by your body, and not so much the other direction (by a flimsy shirt) the force on you is much greater.

The momentum of the phone itself is enough. Go down to the range and practice shooting. Feel all that recoil, despite the fact that the bullet is completely unrestrained in the other direction, and a bullet has a lot less mass than the gun does.

Now in a powerful explosion, the phone's gonna shoot off pretty fast. In some cases fast enough to rip through the shirt once it gets far enough that it takes up all the slack. Which brings to mind the question: how strong was that shirt? If it was strong enough, perhaps some kind of reinforced shirt or something, the hoop stress would be supported by the guy's back, so the shirt itself could maybe be the thing that broke the spine, rather than the shockwave. If that's the case, then there is also an easy solution: breakaway pockets.

I'm not sure that an explosion powerful enough to break the spine would also break the shirt, because I don't know how powerful an explosion would do either. Ribs are pretty easy to crack, though. You can do it just by punching someone hard, and you will crack some if you ever have to do CPR.

Re:Newton's Laws?

[eck011219]

Oh, I know -- don't worry. I mentioned the Mythbusters more as evidence of my lack of full understanding of things.

I suppose if he was already lying on the ground (or pressed up against the wall of the quarry, but that seems unlikely), that would contain the blast and fire it back into him. And as mentioned in another response to my hackneyed theory, there is distance to think about, too.

Re:Newton's Laws?

[eck011219]

Good points, and well described. Thanks.

Yeah, I was thinking if the shirt was strong enough it would contain the blast and fire it back at him, but I didn't think of the hoop stress idea. I still can't imagine a cell phone battery having enough pop to do all of that, but I'm going solely on my own hunches, not actual knowledge of the widowmaker capabilities of them.

Re:Newton's Laws?

[zippthorne]

Well my cert is expired, so that tells you how long ago I bothered to learn any first aid, but I definitely remember my CPR instructors saying that if you don't break any ribs, you're probably not doing it right. I'm sure they were being a bit hyperbolic, as was my intent as well, but my main point was that ribs are not that difficult to break, so the injury there is not entirely implausible.

Re:Newton's Laws?

[Anonymous Coward]

Which brings to mind the question: how strong was that shirt? If it was strong enough, perhaps some kind of reinforced shirt or something, the hoop stress would be supported by the guy's back, so the shirt itself could maybe be the thing that broke the spine, rather than the shockwave. If that's the case, then there is also an easy solution: breakaway pockets.


That, or -- I don't know -- maybe batteries that don't explode.

Re:Newton's Laws?

[KanadaKid19]

Maybe I'm crazy here, but I think I'm going to have to agree with the grandparent on this one.

In your example, we've got an explosion within the gun that sends a bullet flying one way, and the rifle flying back at you, the other way. Hold it wrong, and you could end up with a significant bruise or something I'm sure, using a more powerful weapon, but even that won't be breaking any spines.

Meanwhile, the equal and opposite reaction is that bullet. Now, say that somehow you crammed this gun into a shirt pocket. Say even that yes, it's really really loose, and the bullet has some slowdown time. Unless this guy's wearing a bullet proof jacket, complete with bullet proof pockets that're stitched on with fishing line, I'm thinking that pocket's not going to fare so well. And the guy's back didn't even break!

Re:Newton's Laws?

[wkitchen]

If that's the case, then there is also an easy solution: breakaway pockets.

Great thinking. Now you can have two victims. One with a punctured aorta and a missing pocket, the other with a burnt cell phone sticking out of his forehead.

Exploding cell phone batteries don't kill people.

[butterwise]

People with exploding cell phone batteries kill people.

Reproductive Interests

[QuantumFTL]

This article is making me seriously reconsider my current strategy of keeping my cell phone in my pants....

Re:Reproductive Interests

[ceoyoyo]

If this is true it means... that cell phone batteries are some of the safest devices on the planet.

Ah, that doesn't sound nearly as interesting.

Perfect xmas gift for an ex-wife.

[trolltalk.com]

"In Korea, exploding cellphones are only for old people."

In the rest of the world, they're also great stocking stuffers for ex-wives, guys who beat on women, and Darl McBride.

... and for good measure, in Soviet Russia, exploding phone disconnects YOU!

Re:Perfect xmas gift for an ex-wife.

[DiscipleN2k]

"... and for good measure, in Soviet Russia, exploding phone disconnects YOU!"

Funniest one of these I've read in a while. If only I had mod points.

Re:Perfect xmas gift for an ex-wife.

[trolltalk.com]

then you'd love the one I put in the kitchen at work. People were in the habit of leaving a mess and plugging the sink, so someone put up a sign: "No biological particles in the sink."

I put up another sign: "In Soviet Russia, biological particles sink YOU!"

Yes, I work with russians ...

Re:Perfect xmas gift for an ex-wife.

[cralewyth]

"If only I had mod points."

"then you'd love the one I put in the kitchen at work."

You put mod points in your kitchen at work?

This is the second such fatality this year.

[hey!]

In June a Chinese man named Xiao Jinpeng was killed by an exploding battery in a Motorola phone (http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/07/phone_battery_explosion_kills_weldor_in_gansu_keralanex.php)

At the time, this was the sixth documented cell phone explosion in two years for China.

As I pointed out in another post, an 1100 maH battery packs more than enough energy to kill a man, especially by injury to the heart. In rare cases even a baseball striking the chest can result in cardiac arrest. An exploding cell phone could pack a considerable wallop, maybe not enough to kill you if you had it on your hip, but certainly enough to kill you if you carried it on your chest.

Re:This is the second such fatality this year.

[Fizzl]

...Aaaaand the cells are not usually packed in container suitable for compressing combustion into actual explosion. What you get is a nasty chemical fire which is virtually inextinguishtable in the time it releases its energy.

There's no way a LiPo cell in plastic packaging could explode with considerable force.

I build my own RC airplane batteries. I have right now 50 x 2400mAh cells at home. I have experimented shorting fast discharging cells. I have tried puncturing them. I have tried over charging them. I have tried deforming them. Yes, you get spectacular fireworks, but no explosions in conventional containers.

If I _wanted_ to explode one, I probably could. But I would seal the cell in sharpnel grenade style iron shell or something...

PS. Discard your Li* battery if it ever puffs even slightly or gets a visible deformation from a shock. Damaged Li*'s are unstable.

Re:This is the second such fatality this year.

[hey!]

I have tried puncturing them. I have tried over charging them. I have tried deforming them.

And I'm supposed to take safety advice from you? ;-)

The thing is, Li-ion cells have multiple built in safety features, including break away vents to prevent overpressure. This is why you are much more likely to get a fizz than a bang. However it is probably not coincidental that the one well documented case of death from a phone battery explosion is in China, which is rife with knock-off goods.

You take a safe product, remove the safety features and voila -- you have an unsafe product.

Re:This is the second such fatality this year.

[Fizzl]

Partial credit. The cells themselves have no safety features. The "batteries" do. A cell is one chemical pair which may be combined in series and/or parallel to get deired voltage and capacity.'
The cells themselves are covered with very thin layer of some sort of plastic and there are very thin leads to connect to the pair. Actually, does anyone know what the material is? It looks like tinfoil but feels like plastic.

I have taken apart some Nokia batteries. There's one integrated very small circuit which acts as a killer if some current is reached. No idea what exactly it does. It's like 3mm in diameter and under 1mm in height. Most of it seems to be just lacquer to cover the circuit itself. Anyway, it works: You can't short a Nokia battery.
Oh yeah, just a side note. All Nokia batteries I have gutted, contained cell(s) manufactured by Samsung.

Re:This is the second such fatality this year.

[hey!]

Please try not to assume I have no first hand knowledge of electronics. I've been messing with electronics for thirty years now, and I know the difference between a cell and a battery.

Let me refer you to the Lithium Ion Handbook, particularly figure 2.1 "Lithium Ion Cell Schematic". Each individual CELL multiple features to prevent overcurrent, overheating and overpressure, including a safety vent with a tear away cover; bimetal thermal disconnects; membrane materials that become impermeable in an overheat situation, shutting down the cell. There are multiple belt-and-suspender type safety features within each properly manufactured cell.

Note here that these features are NOT built into the battery pack, they are integral to the construction of cell. However for a battery, the cell protective features are a last line of defense that damage or render the cell inoperable. Thus the need for the battery circuit -- WHICH I AM WELL AWARE OF. I mean, for Pete's sake, everybody who disagrees with you isn't automatically an ignoramus.

If you are building your own batteries, I'd recommend you look into the protective chips. They are inexpensive, and come on tiny disc shaped boards that can simply be inserted in series with a AA sized cell. I don't have the web sites that sell them at my finger tips, but if memory serves they do cater to RC experimenters. The schematics and technical specifications are on the sites the sell them.

The plastic material used to hold batteries together is probably some kind of heat shrink polyester film. If it is silvery, it might be heat shrink Mylar, which once set is stable at high temperatures -- above the flash point of paper for example.

Re:This is the second such fatality this year.

[Fizzl]

Please try not to assume I have no first hand knowledge of electronics

Sorry about that. I spend too much time with my 2 y/o kid :)

I guess its time to disassemble yet another cell. To this day, I haven't found any kind of obvious security features within.

Re:This is the second such fatality this year.

[hey!]

Sorry about that. I spend too much time with my 2 y/o kid :)

No you don't ;-) Mine are older and I can tell you that you don't regret any time you spend with 'em.

Apology accepted by the way.

The difference:

[Per Abrahamsen]

One is fun and annoys people who lack a sense of humor, the other is not and does not.

Go read some boring news site like cnn for the fake objectivity you treasure so much.

LG Phone

[Jason Levine]

An LG Phone huh? That's interesting.

*checks shirt pocket and sees an LG VX8350*

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!! *boom!*

Not to mention...

[Anonymous Coward]

It was made almost entirely of C4 instead of plastic, the way the cars in the movies all are.

Re:Not to mention...

[wattrlz]

C4 requires a shockwave to detonate. It is extremely unlikely you'd set it off by burning, shooting, or dropping it. I think you're thinking of acetone peroxide.

Re:Not to mention...

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

Your post is an example of why the U.S. House Says the Internet is [a] Terrorist Threat. :)

having broken my spine before...

[Khyber]

I'll guarantee you the battery didn't cause it. Someone posted two scenarios, iand mentioned the second as the most plausible. I don't think he gave enough thought to his first scenario, which could've well played out as:

Man's sweat shorts phone contacts (considering how crappily those phones are built, no surprise) battery causes a burn, man falls and breaks his spine and ribs.

BTW, an EXPLOSION should be audible enough for anyone to hear. Even lithium batteries losing containment and burning make a nice sound!

Chuck Norris

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm tempted to say that Chuck Norris roundhouse-kicked him in the chest, which happened to have a phone in the shirt pocket, causing the battery to explode, and there's more than enough remaining force to break the ribs and spine behind it.

S.

Exploding Batteries is the next Fan Death!

[Foo2rama]

Those wacky Koreans...


Their news is odd and very sensational. Check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death . This belief is so prevalent that the government has issued warnings. Of course there have been no fan deaths outside Korea, but the newspapers often attribute multiple deaths during heatwaves to dieing from being exposed to air from an electric fan.

Cellphone would rapidly discharge in quarry

[LM741N]

When a cellphone is turned on, it keeps in constant contact with the cell towers. Since this man was in a quarry, likely his phone couldn't make the connection and boosted up its power, overheating the battery. In the electronics industry we have the same problem when people accidentally leave their phones on in a screen-room. (ie Faraday shield)

lethal battery? I think not.

[pixelkiller]

ok lets start here. "The man, identified only by his family name Suh, was found dead at his workplace in a quarry" A quarry you say. Like where theres lots of heavy and dangerous earth moving equipment. Probably loose rocks as well. And b) if you where to place a stick of dynamite on a table and detonate it. It would blow upwards not down. you would have to have something hard on top of it in order for it to exert enough force to push down through the table. now apply that same principal to a cell battery. and since when did cell phone battery's have enough material in them to create a lethal explosion? If there that lethal why don't more battery powered objects explode killing the operator? the CIA should start looking into having agents use there cell phone battery's as IED's in emergences. I think its more likely that he either fell from some where and the landing killed him and pressure from hitting the ground or object caused the phone "exploded" (I mean go Puff with a bit of electrical smoke.) or he was killed my a person. Unlikely but possible.

When a Hungry

[ewhenn]

I read this article and chuchled as this came to me: When a hungry bunch is up for lunch... whatcha gonna pick? Hot Pockets!

Amazing power

[Pedrito]

That must have been a hell of an explosion. It was in his shirt pocket and not only broke ribs, but broke his spine as well! His internal organs were probably demolished.

I never realized how powerful battery explosions could be until college when I was doing computer repair part-time. I saw an old IBM XT with a memory add-on card that had a watch battery in it for the clock. The watch battery had exploded, damaging the memory card and the card next to it pretty severely. Have you ever tried to break a computer card? Those things are tough, and this was just a little watch battery.

Re:Amazing power

[oldsaint]

The button cell in the computer was undoubtedly an elemental lithium cell, with a high level of reactivity, potentially explosive if it ruptures and leaks in the presence of water, reaction with which creates both heat and hydrogen gas. A cell phone battery, on the other hand, is lithium ion, far less reactive, and unlikely to have any explosive potential. It may be that some elemental lithium is created in recharging a lithium ion battery, if the battery is charged too rapidly or otherwise improperly, so a reaction can not be ruled out if the elemental lithium is released into contact with water. This is why device manufacturers recommend that their batteries be replaced with their own batteries. But the explosive capacity should still be small.

Maybe

[nobodymk2]

He was so agonized by the exploding battery that he got smashed in a giant piece of equipment. *roll eyes*

Hm

[Anonymous Coward]

You're all interrogating the text from the wrong perspective. Perhaps the battery exploded and it scared him so he tripped and fell on some rocks.

Exploding cellphone in New Zealand

[gringer]

An incident similar to this (resulting in illness, rather than death) happened in New Zealand recently.

I thought something had fallen off a table but there was a foul stink. I woke up and realised the room was very smoky and there was a very strong smell of electrical burning.... It had fallen onto the floor in three pieces. There were burn patches on the carpet so it looked like the phone had jumped from one spot to another. Given comments about cellphones being a bit like grenades, the way he dealt with the situation was entirely reasonable. He threw the (grenade|battery) out the window before it could do more damage.

silent killers

[alxkit]

one word : mafia. who else can break the ribs and spine AND make it look like an accident?

To die for

[Kuvter]

I've always wanted a long lasting battery. I hear batteries today are to die for!

Aortic rupture

[JustCallMeRich]

Although I haven't seen one in person, I learned in my firefighter and EMT training that even a mid-speed accident (35mph / 70kph) can cause an aortic rupture - the main artery on top of the heart. Apparently it is able to move more than the heart can, and when the impact happens it tends to tear, and, as my instructor said "You can't get them to the hospital fast enough".

Re:Aortic rupture

[smellsofbikes]

The crash I had, I was sitting still at the back of a traffic jam and a semi ran into me doing about 65 mph/100kph, and my car rolled about five times. The side-to-side yanking of the seatbelt is what broke all my ribs, but luckily most of my internal organs were fine or just bruised. I've read about the aortic tear thing, and it sounds reasonable. I've also read debate about whether that's actually what happens... but dead's dead.
(btw, 35mph -> 55kph, more or less, rather than 70.)

Killer Battery?

[tristian_was_here]

I will be walking down the road one day and my phone will jump out my pocket take my money and stab me a few times. Its a tougth world we live in these days...

Melted != exploded

[_Shorty-dammit]

"BATTERY EXPLOSION KILLS MAN! (PS, the battery was only melted, sorry for saying it exploded. Because it didn't.)" Since when does melting constitute exploding? This is a clear case of sensationalism where the facts have been changed. The thing melted, it didn't explode. Why on earth would they say it exploded, when the battery looks like it's intact, and the plastic over it just melted some? haha. Sheesh.

where to put it?

[wikinerd]

So this means that we now have to take care where we place the cellphone. Where can it cause the less lethal damage in case it goes mad? In the shirtpocket near your heart or down under near your... you know. I guess the decision has to do with which organ on your body you value most. Sounds like a neat idea for a slashdot poll.

One thing you can say about S. Korea

[Superpants]

South Korea sure is good at finding new and nerdy ways to die.

Sun Pin says, "Can you hear me now?"

[Guppy]

PT: "Hello?"
M: "deadpalestinianterroristsayswhat"
PT:"What?" KA-BOOM! Pang Chuan dies under this tree.

:)

RTFA

[nut]

Nowhere in the article does it suggest a causal link between the fact that the cellphone exploded and that the man's ribs and spine were broken.

A doctor speculates that explosion damaged his heart and lungs (which still seems a bit far-fetched to me) but it is explicitly stated to be both a quote and a *presumption*.

I would suggest that the information about the broken spine and ribs has been put in the article for the sake of completeness and accuracy.

A bunch of people here are beating up on a straw man.

inventor contest

[SoyChemist]

There should be a concerted effort to figure out how this happens. Lg should ask a bunch of college kids to try and trigger the things. That might give them insight into how to fix the problem.

I don't have faith in LG products.

[liftphreaker]

It could very well have been LG's fault. The 42" plasma TV my brother bought from LG had to be replaced three times before he got a working set. The first set had weird flickering problems since day-2. The second set died after 2 days of working properly and the third set would overheat like crazy, we were scared it would catch fire. Touch the back of the set and it was hotter than an oven! LG, in my experience, makes some of the least reliable electronics out there, barring some low end china companies.

Shaped charges?

[electronspiraltoroid]

Hi all,
I've done some tests on old mobile phone packs and they can and do explode in flames if overcharged then shorted.

Had to use a screwdriver to initiate the reaction but its possible that overcharge-induced internal short could have been enough.
Then, the phone's battery casing acted like a shaped charge, in that the hot gases were briefly confined and burst out of one area. The force generated would be enormous (these things are used to compress plutonium in "Physics Packages") !

Lesson learned: do not do Li charging in software, its far too risky.

And they allow portable DVD players on planes? Li cells 10* the volume of mobile packs + overcharge + strategically placed drawing pin + fist = Instant incendiary device, Macgyver-style :)

Oh, and there's the favourite camera flash hooked up to battery trick, this also induces rapid disassembly with flame :)

-A (IANAT) Next stop Gitmo... LOL!

That's some battery

[Anonymous Coward]

This has got to be the single most misleading headline on slashdot ever.
Seriously, the guy had a broken spine. I don't think the cell phone battery did that.

Update: Phone May Not Have Killed Korean Worker

[LeadSongDog]

According to AP via http://www.physorg.com/news115555494.html the "National Institute of Scientific Investigation" says the cell phone couldn't have caused the injuries.

Another report of a dangerous LG product

[WindShadow]

LG is getting too much free publicity lately, when shopping for a new TV I was reading the customer reviews on the Circuit City site, and multiple people reported that their LG TVs burst into flames. Not the kind of press a vendor wants.

Note that CNN just reported that phone which exploded "may have had an off-brand replacement battery."

He was run over

[mercthree]

I asked a Korean friend about this - it turns out the fatality was due to interaction with a tracked vehicle. Apparently there was enough force in the getting-run-over process to assplode the cell battery, which is why the medical examiner has said that performing an autopsy will be "difficult". I suppose that one type of crushed organ goo is not readily distinguishable from other types.

The Korean Media Already Reported This is a HOAX

[Anonymous Coward]

A worker accidentally crushed him with machienery, and then tried to cover it up.

It wasn't a Cellphone, it was a Truck.

[thewils]

Just replying to the top post...

Check out the following link before you read too many replies...

It's a Truck