WASHINGTON (AP) - Over the past two years, federal safety officials have received 83 reports of cell phones exploding or catching fire, usually because of incompatible, faulty or counterfeit batteries or chargers. Burns to the face, neck, leg and hip are among the dozens of injury reports the agency has received. “CPSC is receiving more and more reports of incidents involving cell phones, and we’re very concerned of the potential for more serious injuries or more fires,” said agency spokesman Scott Wolfson.
Some consumer advocates say the cause goes beyond bad batteries making their way to the market. They point to the increasing pressure on battery and phone makers to fit more capabilities into small instruments. “If you’re cramming more and more power in a small space, what you’re making is a small bomb,” said Carl Hilliard, president of the California-based Wireless Consumers Alliance, which has been tracking incidents of cell phone fires and explosions.
The CPSC is trying to determine if improved venting is enough by itself to ensure safety. “We have seen temperatures as high as 600 degrees, and you can have a torch-like effect if these batteries don’t function properly,” Wolfson said. The commission has announced three battery recalls since January, one from Verizon Wireless and two from Kyocera Wireless Corp. Kyocera’s first recall was blamed on a supplier whose standards had slipped. The other recalls were attributed to suppliers bringing counterfeits into distribution chains.
Angela Karasek, a 21-year-old paralegal in Philadelphia, bought her Motorola phone and battery together from a Nextel store. She awoke one night a few weeks ago to what she described as a pinging sound and then saw fire. Her cell phone battery had blown out, igniting a doll about three feet away. Marcelino Gonzalez of Brentwood, N.Y., said he suffered second-degree burns after his Kyocera phone exploded in his hand as he turned it on to make a call. “If it was to my face it would have blown up in my face,” said Gonzalez.
—If only they would blow up when you talked too loudly into them on public transportation . . .
You have a better chance of being struck with lightining than having a cell phone explode. 83 accounts? 83 out of how many hundreds of millions of cell phones?
My company alone as 4+ million customers and I have never heard of any cell phone related “explosion” ever in Canada.
Seems to be rather rash to blame technology “craming more and more power in a small space”. Sounds like these people have no idea how batteries work.
I’m pretty sure all the reported explosions can each be explained away very simply and rationally: telekenesis. Somewhere, out there, unwitting telekinetics are thinking bad thoughts about cell phone users. When that happens, BAM! Cell phone explosion.
::shrug::
Ooh! Ooh! I had my Kyocera batter recalled because it was “counterfeit”! I feel like I’m famous! Or something.
The notification was amusing. I got a text message saying (I kid you not) “YOU ARE ABOUT TO RECIEVE AN IMPORTANT TEXT MESSAGE FROM KYOCERA!”
Then I got another text message that said something like “IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE,” telling me to go to a certain URL, “or USE ANOTHER PHONE to call 1-866-blah-blah . . .”
Being the wild and crazy gal that I am, I decided to live dangerously and keep using my phone until the replacement battery arrived.
It’s just simple physics. The more energy you cram into a given amount of space, the greater the consequences if something goes wrong.
The same thing applies to compressed gases. I used to work with some equipment that used 10,000 PSI nitrogen. If a hose or fitting failed, it could cut you in half.
Yeah, but you can’t “compress” energy. You CAN use more efficient means of storing energy (Lith Ion etc) but you don’t really compress anything.
Look at your cell battery and you’ll see normal batteries are only about 720 mAh depending on the phone. You’d be hard pressed to “cut you in half” with 720 mAh (myth busters even tried to ignite gas vapor with a cell battery and couldn’t do it).
IMHO new batteries are a lot safer than the old bag phone batteries. I’m sure more people got burned by leaking acid (4 lbs of battery = lots of crap) than modern Lith Ion or Nickel metal hydride batteries.
It should be noted that a good quality Lith Ion battery has built in protective electronics to prevent messing up the battery. I suspect the “3rd party” battery makers do not use this sort of protection which is why the article mentions counterfeit batteries. I’m sure the big cell phone makers do not want to be sued.
“If someone tries to get your to enter 123123666123123 into your cellular phone DO NOT DO IT!!! Apparently this is a code that was accidentally left in the phone that will change the phone’s battery connection. If you enter this code your phone will EXPLODE!!! It happened to a close friend of mine!!! Her ex-husband was talking to her on AIM and told her to do this and it made her phone explode. She got acid burns over 86% of her body!!1!!! This is NOT a JOKE or a HOAX!!! Send this to EVERY1 You KNOW!!!111!!!1!!”