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.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[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.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[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.

Re:Grain of Salt Required?

[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

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...

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.

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.

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.