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Brief report
Electronic cigarette explosion and burn injuries, US Emergency Departments 2015–2017
  1. Matthew E Rossheim1,
  2. Melvin D Livingston2,
  3. Eric K Soule3,
  4. Helen A Zeraye1,
  5. Dennis L Thombs4
  1. 1 Department of Global and Community Health, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
  2. 2 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
  3. 3 Department of Psychology, Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
  4. 4 Health Behavior and Health Systems, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Matthew E Rossheim, Department of Global and Community Health, George Mason University, Fairfax VA 22030, USA; mrosshei{at}gmu.edu

Abstract

Background Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) battery failure can result in explosions and burn injuries. Previous attempts to quantify these events has been limited to compilations of case studies, federal agency reports and media reports. Although e-cigarette explosions and burn injuries are thought to be rare, current surveillance methods likely underestimate actual occurrences.

Methods Analyses were conducted on cross-sectional data from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). A keyword search of case narrative text was used to identify e-cigarette-related explosion and burn injuries presenting to US emergency departments from 2015 to 2017. Sampling weights were applied to make conservative national incidence estimates.

Results From 2015 to 2017, there were an estimated 2035 e-cigarette explosion and burn injuries presenting to US hospital emergency departments (95% CI 1107 to 2964).

Conclusions There are more e-cigarette explosion and burn injuries in the USA than estimated in the past reports. Improved surveillance of e-cigarette injuries and regulation of e-cigarette devices is urgently needed. NEISS could be a valuable resource for e-cigarette injury surveillance.

  • electronic nicotine delivery devices
  • surveillance and monitoring
  • public policy

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054518

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors MER conceptualised the study, created the database and drafted the introduction, methods and discussion sections. MDL conducted the statistical analyses and drafted the results section. MER and HAZ searched and reviewed NEISS narrative texts. All authors contributed to reviewing and revising drafts of the article and approved the final article.

    • Funding ES’s effort was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P50DA036105, the Center for Tobacco Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement NEISS data are publicly available.