The new trend that is loved by a lot of folks who are trying to quit smoking has been making rounds in the news. There are about 134 cases of e-cigarette explosions due to batteries overheating, exploding or catching fire since 2009 to January 2016.
The Food and Drug Administration also known as the FDA will finally be holding a public workshop to gather information and spark a discussion about the e-cigarette explosions. The agency's Center for Tobacco Products aims to host medical experts, scientific experts, distributors, retailers, manufacturers, government agencies, public health organizations and academic researchers.
As per CNN, a representative of the agency has spoken about their concern in looking into the adverse episodes caused by e-cigarette explosions to users. This will be held in a two-day workshop where a public docket is available for everyone.
Last year, the FDA announced that it would start regulating e-cigarettes as to how other traditional cigarettes and smokeless tobacco are being regulated. Now, a workshop will follow the announcement. This is to finally bring the 50 injured individuals and 67 property damage to an end.
The FDA will be holding a science-based public workshop to look into batteries utilized in Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) including e-cigarettes. The talk will be covering current ENDS design and associated risks, ENDS design for risk control, battery concerns and non-battery concerns related to ENDS failures and lastly, communication to consumers and the public. A docket for public written comments will also be available via a Federal Register.
"The issue that's being discussed is exploding batteries. They're stating it's e-cigarettes, but it's basically the battery itself," said Ray Story, CEO of Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association.
Previous e-cigarette explosions are not solely because of the e-cigarette unit, instead, it is because of the retailers' and consumers' lack of knowledge about it. Some brands were even recalled to prevent some of these incidents from happening again.
