Vaping: it’s that maybe-marginally-less-horrible-for-you-than-smoking trend which comes with the slight risk that it will explode and demolish your jaw. Swings and roundabouts! In a case study published Wednesday, the authors lay out exactly this scenario: a Nevada teenager was vaping when the device exploded, bloodying his mouth, breaking his teeth, and tearing a hole in his jaw. Yikes!
The case is highlighted in the New England Journal of Medicine today, which indicates that injuries of this nature are uncommon but can be devastating. NBC News identifies the kid as 17 year old Austin Adams, who bought the vape from VGOD. After the blast, Adams’ mother had to drive him over five hours to the nearest hospital capable of treating an injury of this nature.
“This child had a blast injury to his lower jaw, as well as burns around his lip,” said Dr Katie Russell, who treated Adams. Further investigation revealed “extensive lacerations in his mouth, multiple disrupted lower incisors, and bony incongruity of his left mandible.” None of that sounds very good.
Would you like to see a photo of it? I’m warning you, it is mildly graphic. Not heaps bad, but sort of bad.
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Here you go:
Vape injuries are definitely a thing. A number of others are highlighted in a 2018 article published in Tobacco Control, a publication which describes itself as an “international peer-reviewed journal covering the nature and consequences of tobacco use worldwide.” Pulling from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s injury database, the article tries to collate all evidence of e-cig related injuries in the United States.
The study concludes that between 2015 and 2017 there were 2035 explosion and burn injuries related to e-cigarettes and vapes, and argues that this figure may be underreported.
Well. Exploding vapes: not cool or chill in any way.
