Man Injured by Exploding E-Cigarette; Congresswoman Urges FDA Oversight

Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate electronic cigarettes just as normal cigarettes are after a Wyandotte man was severely injured when a vapor pen exploded as he smoked it.

Dingell told WWJ/CBS Detroit questions remain unanswered about the safety of e-cigarettes and vapor pens, which deliver doses of nicotine or other additives, such as hookah, to users in the form of vapor.

“Your natural thought is, is it safe to inhale? But second, is it safe to light up? Could it explode? And most people … didn’t think they had to worry about it exploding and I was actually stunned to hear of the number of incidents that have occurred across the country,” Dingell said.

“Big Boom Louder Than a Shotgun”

Jason Diekman, who survived tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, was recently hospitalized after a vapor pen he was smoking exploded, sending shrapnel into the wall and scorching his arm and part of his abdomen.

“I pushed it and it just exploded – a big boom louder than a shotgun going off,” Diekman told WJBK-TV.

The pen was still in Diekman’s hand when it exploded. “The thing just fired up out of my hands, hit the wall,” he said.

Diekman’s arm was scorched, he may have lasting nerve damage to his thumb and a part of his abdomen is black from burns, according to the report.

“It’s for real, like charred black,” he said. “Like charcoal.”

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Diekman, who survived two combat tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq without injury, told WJBK ”it’s crazy” to make “it through all of that, come home and a vapor cigarette almost takes me out.”

Under regulations proposed by Dingell, electronic cigarette manufacturers would be required to disclose the ingredients in the products to the FDA. Diekman said there was nothing on the packaging indicating a danger.

“... None of these boxes have warnings saying they can explode in your hand or anything,” Diekman told WJBK. “That’s what you get - left with a bunch of bills and you know, ‘Sorry about your luck.’ “

In her letter to the FDA’s acting commissioner, Stephen Ostroff, Dingell said the lack of regulation is “unacceptable.”

“Consumers have a right to know the products they buy are safe and not ticking time bombs that could explode dangerously at any point. We are exploring both regulatory and legislative solutions to this problem to ensure Sgt. Diekman and other consumers have the protections they deserve. I encourage anyone who has experienced an adverse event while using an e-cigarette to submit the problem to the FDA’s Safety Reporting Portal. The FDA will use this information to help protect consumers from defective products and ensure proper oversight to protect public health.”

Diekman was lucky compared with some other people who have been injured while smoking an e-cigarette, billed as a safe alternative to regular tobacco cigarettes.

In San Diego, an electronic cigarette exploded in a man’s face at a liquor store in February, critically burning him and damaging the store. On the heels of that report, an Anaheim, CA, teen was hospitalized after an electronic cigarette exploded, badly burning his hand.

In that instance, the teen’s girlfriend described the blast as Diekman did, saying it sounded like a gun going off.

Earlier this year an e-cigarette battery blew up in a Texas man’s pocket and sparks were “shooting from his crotch area,” according a lawsuit filed against the store where he purchased the pen.

The injured man, a former Marine, said he was burned on both sides of his legs and spent four days in a Texas hospital burn unit.

“Vaping” on the Rise

About 10 percent adults in the United States now “vape,” according to an online Reuters/Ipsos poll of 5,679 Americans conducted between May 19 and June 4. That is almost four times higher than the 2.6 percent of adults who used e-cigarettes in 2013, according to government figures.

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The FDA last year proposed sweeping rules to extend its authority to cover e-cigarette vapor pens. Not yet finalized, the rule would allow the FDA to regulate in the same manner as regular cigarettes, but some Republican lawmakers have balked, saying the proposed regulations go too far and place some products already on the market at a competitive disadvantage.

Dingell urged the FDA to keep in the proposed rules a provision that would require approval of products already on the market.

Michigan lawmakers are considering banning the sale of e-cigarette products to minors, but Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed e-cigarette bills earlier this year. Though he agreed minors shouldn’t be able to buy them, he said the best way was to treat them as a tobacco product.

“It’s a tobacco product and should be treated as such. It’s nicotine,” Snyder said at the time. “It addresses the minor issue and a lot of other things. And if eventually science proves otherwise in a few years, we can always re-look at it. But I think the science today would say if you’re using nicotine like that, it should be a tobacco product.”

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