Cell phone explosion

Abstract

Cell phone explosions and resultant burn injuries are rarely reported in the scientific literature. We report a case of cell phone explosion that occurred when a young male was listening to music while the mobile was plugged in for charging.

Full text

Original Article
Cell phone explosion
Alok Atreya
1
, Tanuj Kanchan
2
, Samata Nepal
3
and
Bhuwan Raj Pandey
4
Abstract
Cell phone explosions and resultant burn injuries are rarely reported in the scientific literature. We report a case of cell
phone explosion that occurred when a young male was listening to music while the mobile was plugged in for charging.
Keywords
Accidents, burns, cell phone, explosion
Introduction
Cell phones have become an integral part of everyday
life since the 1970s. They have become a necessity and a
most convenient means of communication. Further,
cell phones are used for listening to music, gaming
and taking photographs, etc. Though the benefits of
cell phones are widely known, studies over the past
two decades have considered whether the use of cell
phones has deleterious effects on human health.
1–4
It was found that the scientific literature on cell
phone explosions and resultant burn injuries is limited
to a few reports.
5,6
We report a rare case of cell phone
explosion that occurred when a young man was listen-
ing to music while the mobile was plugged in for
charging.
Case report
A 21-year-old man sustained flash burn injuries to his
ears. He presented to the Emergency Department of
Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara with complaints
of pain and diminished hearing of the left ear. He was
listening to music through earphones connected to a
cell phone that was plugged in for charging when the
sudden explosion of the cell phone, earphones and
charger took place (Figure 1). There was no history
of loss of consciousness, vomiting, tinnitus or vertigo.
The vital signs of the patient were stable. On inspection
of the pinna, burn injuries were observed in concha,
crux of helix, antehelix and tragus of left ear and
concha of right ear. Burn injuries were also present in
the pre- and post-auricular region of left ear (Figure 2).
Otoscope examination of both the ears showed edema-
tous external auditory canals and the tympanic mem-
branes could not be visualised. There was no discharge
and no loss of hearing. Rinne’s test by tuning fork at
512 Hz for both the ears was negative while Weber’s
test was central. Second to third degree burn injuries
were present on the right palm that was holding the cell
phone when it exploded. Burn injuries were also seen
on the palmar aspect of right ring and little finger
(Figure 3). Dressing of the wound was done daily
with soframycin (framycetin sulphate) ointment along
with a prophylactic antibiotic coverage with injections
of clindamycin. On the seventh day of admission,
debridement of the eschar of right palm was performed
under regional anaesthesia (wrist block). The patient
was discharged on request on tenth day with advice
of weekly follow-up for dressing of the wounds. The
audiometry done after two months was normal and
tympanometry result showed bilateral ‘A type’
tympanogram.
1
Department of Forensic Medicine, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara,
Nepal
2
Department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore
(A Constituent College of Manipal University), India
3
Department of Community Medicine, Manipal Teaching Hospital,
Pokhara, Nepal
4
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Manipal Teaching Hospital,
Pokhara, Nepal
Corresponding author:
Tanuj Kanchan, Department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical
College (A Constituent College of Manipal University), Mangalore, India.
Email: tanuj.kanchan@manipal.edu; tanujkanchan@yahoo.co.in
Medico-Legal Journal
2016, Vol. 84(1) 18–21
!The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0025817215608977
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Figure 2. Burn injuries over both the external ears (a); complete healing occurred after two months (b).
Figure 1. The mobile phone, charger and the earphone that exploded spontaneously.
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Discussion
Injuries sustained in cell phone explosions are not
uncommon news items. The burns resulting from cell
phone explosions can be considered as a largely under-
reported medical issue. A Google search revealed at
least five cases of cell phone explosions reported as
news items from India alone in the last three years.
These explosions resulted in direct burns, loss of eye
sight and even death in one case. Scientific publications
on cell phone explosion, however, remain a rarity.
In a case of a mobile phone explosion in Turkey, a 16-
year-old female sustained 2% partial thickness burns.
6,7
A middle-aged car mechanic in Wales sustained 1.5%
partial thickness burn over his body while changing a
petrol tank of a car underneath which he was working
when his mobile suddenly started ringing.
8
There are no
definite mechanisms given on how the mobile phone
explosions occurred. It may be due to a spark generated
by the battery within the phone or the electromagnetic
waves that generate current and ignite an inflammable
object in the vicinity.
8
Apart from these, explosion of a
mobile phone can occur when they are used to detonate
bombs during a terrorist attack.
9
These theories, how-
ever, do not explain the mechanism of the mobile phone
explosion in our case.
Figure 3. Burn injuries sustained over right palm (a); healing with scar formation (b).
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The similarity noted among the other cases of cell
phone explosion is that the explosion occurred when
the devices were plugged in for charging and were con-
nected to an electric charger. In most of the cases, the
explosion occurred when the victim attempted to
answer a call on a cell phone that was plugged in for
charging. In the reported case, however, the victim was
listening to music with ear plugs on when the explosion
occurred which resulted in trauma to his ears. Our lit-
erature search has revealed only a single case of acute
ear trauma caused by the failure of a cellular phone.
10
Although cell phones can be useful, they can be haz-
ardous if not used properly. The causes of cell phone
explosion are often related to the use of replacement
batteries and chargers, etc. The victim in our case, how-
ever, denied replacement of the battery or of any part,
and claimed to have used only the company provided
accessories obtained at the time of the purchase of the
cell phone. The mobile phone in the reported case was
not defective and was in a good working condition
prior to the incident. There was no warning note
about possibility that the device could explode while
charging.
Although rare, the possibility of explosion of a
mobile phone does exist. A common feature observed
in similar cases is that the cell phones were plugged in
for charging when the explosion occurred. It is advis-
able that cell phones are used only when the device is
unplugged from the charger.
Editor’s note
In the recent London Times article by James Dean
(Exploding phone charger burnt woman. Available
at: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/technology/article
4511395.ece), it was reported that ‘‘EE is investigating
the cause of an accident involving an ‘exploding’ phone
charger that caused a fire’’ and left a 26-year-old
woman medical student with serious burns. She was
recharging her EE Power Bar through her Mac com-
puter when it shot across her bedroom ‘‘like a
firework’’ and started a fire. She burnt her hand
trying to contain it before her mother came in with a
towel and put out the flames. She was later treated in
hospital. One million EE customers have the device; the
cause of this isolated incident is not yet known.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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