Mobilephone kills people!

[transistor495]

I'm referring to the incident happened recently, which is so sad:

Recently a lady in nearby state suffered an on spot death due to a cellphone blasted violently while charging and when she attended a call during the time. The mobile set is made in and imported from China. Anybody has any comments on this particular incident please input here. I'd say it is pretty an exceptional case, may be a manufacturing defect or something. It is the first incident I hear in a prolonged period.

I'd like to know when a li-ion battery will blast I mean the surrounding temperature may be too high? or any nearby radiation from microwave kinda something? Anything wrong reaction happened inside the battery when we draw some fair amount of current(during phone call) while it's already on charging progress..?

I remember last year or so a Chinese person died due to a Motorola mobilephone exploded in his shirt pocket while he was working in an extremely hot environment. Also we all know Nokia replaced their batteries due to some short circuit issues inside the battery that has made during a period in a particular factory.

**broken link removed**

 

[Hero999]

I doubt it's anything to do with radiation.

The Li-ion battery was probably not fitted with the required protection circuitry.

 

[Sceadwian]

Overcharged lithiums or those in high temperature environments go through thermal runaway, where they release pretty much all of the energy at once. It's not really an explosion it's more of a large puff of fire and gasses, however if it's contained (like in a cell phone) a small explosion could occur. It may have been a failure in a poorly designed charger than allowed mains voltage to appear across the battery terminals. It can also happen if the batteries case it punctured.