Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/XVzwyLbLfiQ   Exploding cigars are an old prank, but e-cigarette explosions aren’t funny and can be devastating to an increasing number of teens.  University of Utah surgeons combed the case records for 9 children’s hospitals looking for e-cigarette-related injuries during the years 2016 through 2019.   A total of 15 children 13 to 18 years were injured.  Ten required hospital admission and 3 landed in the ICU.  The catalog of injuries included facial burns, loss of teeth, thigh and groin burns, hand burns, eye injuries, and even a jaw fracture. Forty percent required surgery.   Nationally, FEMA reported 195 e-cigarette fires and explosions between 2009 and 2016, and 29% of the victims suffered severe injuries.   Why do e-cigarettes explode? They often contain often cheap lithium-ion batteries to power their heaters.  When these batteries get banged around, they can explode and the e-cigarette becomes a flaming rocket.   So add this explosion danger to lung damage and cancer gener