Exploding e-Cigs? How to Handle a Vaping Personal Injury

Vaping Personal Injury

Have you suffered from a exploding e-cig or vaping related injuries? Here’s what to do in a vaping personal injury lawsuit.

The increased use of vaping devices, or e-cigarettes, has led to numerous personal injuries and several deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 2,807 hospitalizations due to vaping-related lung injuries as of February 2020, as well as 68 deaths confirmed in 29 states. Whether used with tobacco or THC, vaping carries the risk of not only illness, but severe injury due to e-cigs potentially catching fire or exploding.

Risks of Using e-Cigs

Exploding e-cigs have caused serious injuries such as thermal burns (1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree), deep tissue chemical burns, lacerations, eye injuries, lost teeth, bone loss, smoke inhalation, loss of appendages, and even traumatic brain injuries. But the risks aren’t limited to physical wounds. Exploding e-cig victims have also reported post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems; a serious burn or bodily damage can impact one’s body image and have lasting emotional effects.

Studies have also found that vaping liquids often contain poisonous and even cancer-causing toxins. Aerosols contained in e-cigarettes may include compounds such as diacetyl, which is known to cause a disease known as popcorn lung, or scarring of lung air sacs often found in workers at microwave popcorn factories. Vaping products may contain benzene (also found in car exhaust), diethylene glycol (an antifreeze chemical), and formaldehyde as well as lead, nickel, and tin.

Researchers have determined that vaping can damage DNA just as traditional cigarette smoking can. It can also lead to nicotine addiction. Inhaling nicotine isn’t safe using any method, and it increases the risk of cancer and heart attack.

Vaping Personal Injury Law and Your Legal Rights

In numerous states, personal injury cases involving e-cigarette mishaps have been filed under product liability laws. But determining the cause of a lung injury can be complicated. To make matters even more difficult, there’s no specific regulation or law that requires e-cigarette products to be subject to product design or safety testing.

Consumers, including teens and young adults, may not be aware of hazards related to lithium-ion batteries, vaping liquids, and short-circuiting electrodes. Devices are often of inferior quality, not tested, or supplied with appropriate instructions on use because the industry is largely unregulated. Dropping an e-cigarette, placing it too close to a heat source, or overheating can lead to injury as well.

Building Your Case

The lawsuit process for a vaping personal injury can be complicated. A personal injury attorney can help with your claim in the area of product liability. It can be difficult to file a claim against a product manufacturer. However, a lawyer can consider whether the product performed as it was advertised to, had the proper safety warnings, included adequate use instructions, or posed a significant risk to consumers.

A product can be defective by design if it has an inherent flaw. There can be a defect in the production process as well. If the item wasn’t supplied with the right instructions or safety warnings, then the manufacturer can be liable for harm caused by defective marketing. These types of cases don’t require proving the designer/manufacturer was negligent; “strict liability” means you only need to prove the defect existed and can be traced backed to that entity.

The harm caused by a defective product is evident in your injuries. Your attorney can help preserve this evidence and show how extensive the injuries caused by your accident are.

What to Do If You’re Injured by an Exploding e-Cig?

As soon as you’re injured by an e-cig, get medical attention. Prompt care can protect your health as well as provide the documentation needed to prove your case. Take photos of the product and your injuries; also, preserve the e-cigarette in the condition it was in after the incident, along with its packaging.

Your attorney can use the evidence you preserve to fight for compensation. This can include past and future medical bills (hospitalization, rehabilitation, medication, etc.), lost wages, and lost earning capacity as well as pain and suffering. You could also be compensated for mental anguish, emotional distress, disfigurement, and loss of quality of life.

Contact The Law Offices of Jacob Emrani

Our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers have the experience to take on product designers, manufacturers, and insurance companies and fight for you to recover much-needed compensation. We serve all of California. While we can’t eliminate the injuries and pain you have suffered, we can seek justice and fight hard for you to get financial relief. To get started and receive a free consultation, call us at 888-952-2952 today.

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