V2 cigs; click for more

An American smoker who quit tobacco by switching to vapour inhaling E cigarettes was this week recovering in hospital after the battery operated substitute cigarette exploded in his mouth.

Press reports said Vietnam vet Tom Holloway lost all of his teeth and part of his tongue in the explosion which happened when the device’s battery apparently overheated.

“My husband was smoking an electric cigar,” his wife told WEAR ABC 3 News.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those before but it blew up in his face (sobs) His face is all blown up, he’s bleeding,” she added.

Firefighter Chief Butch Parker said the battery inside the e-cigarettte melted, firing molten plastic in all directions.

“It was basically like him holding a bottle rocket in his mouth,” he told reporters (Daily Mail; http://bit.ly/z9Casn )

Describing the incident as a ‘tragedy’, E-Cigarette Retailer V2 Cigs suggested the device may have been modified and spoke of a ‘history of explosions and fires dating back several years due to cheap, unprotected lithium ion batteries’.  Committed E-cigarette enthusiast Oly Grasset from MOTOR (aka Oly) who quit tobacco two years ago, told Skrufff he was equally phlegmatic.

“Well I feel sorry for the dude, but batteries do explode sometimes,” he pointed out.

“Whether it’s your phone, iPod, laptop PC, MacBook (my MacBookPro battery exploded 2 years ago but I didn’t loose any teeth, lucky me!) or your battery car (it can literally disfigure you since it’s full of sulphuric acid!!) well, you name it, anything with a battery could send you to a hospital,” said Oly.

“I’m still using my E-cig, it’s been nearly 2 and a half years now,” Oly continued, “The only time I smoked some tobacco was when some dude gave me a cigarette while I was DJing in Rotterdam on New Years Eve but after the first puff I was totally disgusted.”

“Holland? Rotterdam? New Years Eve!? Come on man, give me a spliff!!” he laughed.  He did own up, however, to one or two unexpected side effects of the E-cigarettes.

“It used to make me very tired sometimes, but then after reading the manual I discovered that excessive puffing could make you drowsy,” he said, “Now I vape slowly and regularly, no more lazy afternoons.”

MOTOR: click for more

MOTOR’s new album (including collaborations from Douglas McCarthy, Gary Numan and Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore) is released on CLR April 17: Mr No is also currently in the studio remixing tracks for his new solo project ‘D-R-U-N-K (including debut single ‘Get ‘D-R-U-N-K in 5 minutes’.

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff