Teen Partially Blinded After Vape Pen Explodes In His Face At Brooklyn Mall

[HuckleB]

http://gothamist.com/2016/04/15/teen_partially_blinded_after_vape_p.php

"A 14-year-old boy was burned and blinded in his left eye after a vape pen exploded in his face at a kiosk at the Kings Plaza mall.

Leor Domatov, who lives in Mill Basin, was at the mall on April 5th with his friends when he visited the Plaza Vapes kiosk. Though the law requires a person to be 21 to buy or handle vapes, the clerk at the kiosk allowed Domatov and his friends to handle the products. While Domatov held one of the vapes, the clerk apparently plugged the device into the wrong battery, causing it to explode. "The guy was showing me different products of the vaporizers. He connected one of the vaporizers to the battery at the store,” Domatov told CBS 2. “When he gave it to me to hold, it exploded in my hands and my face.”

Domatov didn't know what was happening until he saw blood. “I see like red stuff on the floor, and I’m like ‘oh my god, is this blood?’ So I start crying, why does it hurt me in my hands?” he told the station. He spent five days at a local hospital, where he was treated for cuts to his eyes, chemical burns, and injuries to his hands. He currently cannot see out of his left eye. "In my left eye, I have a cut through the cornea and I can’t see out of it, and on my right eye, the cornea was cut halfway through and I can see a little bit," he told the Daily News.

The kiosk is being investigated by the city's Department of Consumer Affairs. "It is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes to customers under 21 in New York City, and we will be visiting this retailer to ensure they follow the law," a spokesperson for the department said in a statement."

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Yowza.

[Scootaloo]

1. Well, that kiosk clerk is up shit creek without a paddle

[HuckleB]

2. Indeed.

And he/she should be.

[jonno99]

3. True. However, it shouldn't be that easy to make such a catastrophic mistake.

And I would argue that unless the clerk jury-rigged or defeated the battery connection scheme, his employer and/or the vape manufacturer are the ones who should (and most likely will) be "on the hook".

In a production environment, our default position was: what people are not prevented from doing, they will do...

[HuckleB]

4. True.

No argument about that part of it.

[jonno99]

5. Otherwise, jeez - poor kid. Life is funny (and not haha funny) that way. You never

know what you're gonna get...

[hunter]

6. Lithium batteries tolerate no misuse...

Lithium battery powered devices like cell phones, laptops, and electric automobiles have sophisticated monitoring circuits that prevent most accidents caused by short circuits, device faults, and over, under, or otherwise improper charging.

Lithium batteries have downed commercial aircraft.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/lithium-batteries-spark-catastrophic-plane-fires-faa-warns/story?id=36816040

Many vaporizers do not have this sophisticated protection circuitry.

[HuckleB]

7. Indeed.

Seems like an odd choice for the product.