Exploding handphone kills man in China

USE MOBILE WITH CAUTION



Exploding handphone kills man in China
February 04, 2009 Print Ready Email Article

HE had just finished charging his handphone minutes ago.

Not long after placing it inside his left chest pocket, the handphone exploded.

The explosion ruptured a main artery in his neck so badly that the man died on the spot later, reported Guangzhou Daily News.

The incident happened in a computer shop in the Yuexiu district of Guangzhou province, China, at 7.30pm on Friday.

Guangzhou Daily News reported that the man, who is in his 20s, was an employee of the shop.

A woman who works in a convenience shop next door said she rushed out of her shop after the explosion and saw the man lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

His colleagues rushed to him but he was already in a critical state.

The man had just changed his handphone battery, said his colleague.

The models of the phone and battery are not known.

Dr Hu Yongyi, head of the Accident and Emergency department in Hong Kong's Union Hospital, told Apple Daily it was possible that the main artery transporting blood to the brain was hurt by a broken fragment from the damaged handphone.

If that happens, the victim could die within 5 minutes.

It was also possible that the shock from the explosion caused the heart to stop beating, added Dr Hu.

This is the latest in a spate of injuries and deaths involving handphone explosions.

In 2007, a man in Guangzhou suffered burns on his left chest after a new handphone he had just bought exploded while he was fiddling with it.

In the same year, a welder from Gansu province died when the handphone inside his chest pocket exploded.

Guangzhou Daily News reported that the explosion could have been caused by a defect of the battery or phone. It was possible that the battery was fake.

Various Hong Kong papers also reported experts who advised the public to use authentic batteries, and to avoid exposing the handphone to heat or to overcharge it.

This is important as new handphones with sophisticated features are becoming like computers, Mr Wang Weiqi, an electronics lecturer at the City University of Hong Kong, told Apple Daily.

They require an electric charge of more than 1,000 milliampere-hour (mAh), unlike simpler handphones which need only several hundred mAh. Back to News