Vaping Kills a Man in Saint Pete

A vape pen which exploded killed a 38-year-old man earlier this month at his home. Autopsy confirmed that one Tallmadge D'Elia who was found dead Saturday on the second floor of his St Petersburg home died as the result of the explosion of an e-cig which burned 80% of his body and resulting in a "projectile wound" of his head.

I recall my days as a smoker. They went from the early 1970s intermittently through the mid 1990s and I haven't smoked for a long time now.

I smoked because I thought it made me look older. I also copped quite a buzz from the tobacco early on. In retrospect I would have just as soon left it all alone. I certainly would have been much better off.

In all those days the most serious injury I incurred were those insidious cardiopulmonary sequela of smoking and the occasional burn practicing the "art" as it were.

Smoking was more a ritual with me. The lighting up, holding the cigarette, the flicking of ashes and other meaningless forays into learned behavior and displays meant for others.

Now the incidence of exploding e-cigarette devices has been on the rise and the inhalation of nicotine via a vape pen such as that causing this death essentially equates to a freebase style event whereby massive doses of those active ingredients like nicotine are inhaled into the body. One missing element would be tar, a chief byproduct of combustion which does not happen in the process.

HOWEVER, things being as they are it appears that a secondary vector for danger lies in the functionality of the devices itself.

Regardless, 80% burns on the body as well as a penetrating wound of the cranium are certainly a rough way to go. Consequently, I will not be using any of these vape pens nor the little vials of nicotine solution for resumation of what used to be called "smoking" anytime in the foreseeable future.