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US Bans Electronic Cigarettes From Checked Baggage Over Fire Risks (foxnews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Earlier this month, the FDA announced it would regulate electronic cigarettes and other new tobacco products. Now, the U.S. Transportation Department announced it is permanently banning passengers and crew members from carrying electronic cigarettes in checked baggage or charging the devices onboard aircraft. They have cited a number of recent incidents that show the devices can catch fire during flight. Passengers can still carry e-cigarettes in their carry-on baggage or on their person, they just can't use the devices on flights. "Fire hazards in flight are particularly dangerous," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. "Banning e-cigarettes from checked bags is a prudent and important safety measure." The new rule covers e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-pipes, and battery-powered portable electronic smoking devices in general. It does not prohibit passengers from transporting other battery-powered devices for personal use like laptop computers or cellphones.
The truth is, yes, this type of thing can happen, but it is easily preventable by being careful about marrying your batteries and not using a low resistance coil at high wattages (to prevent drawing too many amps from being pulled from the battery). There are simple calculators you can use online if you can't be assed with learning Ohm's Law, too. No excuse for stupidity.
Also, stay away from so-called mechanical mods unless you know what you're doing (in mech mods, the activation button physically completes the circuit between the battery and the coil instead of using a circuit board to control it all).
If a moron built his own 22 pistol and it blew up in his face....would you blame firearms?
Because that is EXACTLY what this fucknuts did, he bought a VERY expensive and VERY specialized MECHANICAL MOD. For those that do not know a "mech mod" is a very specialized piece of kit really only used by a handful that consider themselves "pro vapors" as it has NO protection or overload circuits, its just a battery and a trigger. this means you HAVE TO know Ohms law like the back of your hand, know the battery output down to the .0 wattage, I know guys that have been vaping a decade that won't touch mech mods because of how much time you have to invest in them to keep them from being seriously dangerous....can we ALL guess where this is going?
If you said "rich dipshit with more money than brains and who doesn't know Ohm's law from a seatbelt law buys a $300+ mech mod, throws a $20 gas station top on it and blows his dumbass up"? Then you win a cookie. I mean for fuck's sake guys, we've seen morons take a glock and promptly shoot themselves in the foot, hell I've even seen video of a future Darwin award winner that has a fucking 110v POWER STRIP floating on a donut in a pool to power a portable TV...do we blame these objects for the fucking idiots that don't know how to use them properly?
If you buy a normal vaping device, not some crazy mech mod or $5 Chinese special? Then you have absolutely ZERO to worry about as they all have overload and short circuit protection, hell I'm looking at a 40 watter right now I have to take to the local vape shop to get a seal replaced on because the rubber grommet got a teeny tiny bit worn down with all the tanks I've swapped on the thing and just that little bit of wear was enough for the unit to shut down with a "short circuit protection" error code. this is why I have ZERO worries about any of my units blowing up in my face, no matter what tank i throw on it as even the $30 basic box mods have automatic adjustment for ohms and will not allow the unit to fire if you put a top on that is too high or too low ohms for it to fire safely.
What we have in the article you cited is no different than a rich dipshit that buys a Kawasaki Ninja was his first bike and promptly fucks himself up or kills himself, he bought the vaping equivalent of a dragster without even knowing where the gas goes in the fucking thing.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Li-ion and LiMn batteries are already banned from the cargo hold of passenger planes. This seems more to be a case of people not knowing ecigs contained a lithium battery, and blithely packing them in their check-in baggage.
Lithium batteries can suffer a runaway thermal failure when they're punctured or shorted, which can then lead to an explosion and/or fire. While this is more common during use, it can happen while stored if the casing is already damaged and something (like turbulence or something falling on top of it) jostles it further.
No he's not. Electricity takes the path of least resistance through a body. If the power plug fell into the pool the people likely wouldn't notice. In order to get electrocuted the people themselves would need to be between the active source of electricity and the return path it is taking, and the probes would need to be close enough together such that the resistance of the water causes an insignificant enough voltage drop compared to the resistance of the human body.
In something the size of a swimming pool if the current return path is through some metal part of the closest edge of the pool then the cross section of the human body is likely insignificant and may experience a small tingling sensation. If the current return path is through the outlet itself then it would almost impossible to get your body in a position where it can kill you. Even if you did try to get yourself into that position you'll be in pain before you get close enough to dying (there's pools in Japan that offer this sensation via two electric plates that get closer together. The further up the pool you swim the stronger the electrical sensation).
But the best part is this is not a case where you have to take my word for it. Go throw an extension cord into the pool sans GFI, get out your multimeter and put the probes a set distance apart and start measuring the voltage drop. You'll find it almost impossible to measure a voltage drop anywhere short of almost sitcking your probes right into the power outlet.
Or if you don't feel like doing this experiment just jump on Youtube where plenty of people have done it, and then even put their body parts in between the leads, and then even repeated it with salt water.
Yes stupid unlikely things happen, but this is still very unlikely to kill you.