Chinese welder killed by exploding cellphone battery

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and unfortunately, the latest case of exploding battery syndrome led to something far worse than a minor injury. Reportedly, a 22-year old Chinese welder actually perished after a cellphone battery residing in his pocket exploded. The eruption was so violent, in fact, that it "broke a rib and drove the remnants of the pack into his heart," and while rescue crews were able to get him to a hospital, he passed away shortly thereafter. Currently, the manufacturer of the phone and battery are being withheld, but expects in Jinta were dispatched in order to conduct an investigation.

[Via Inquirer, image courtesy of ABC]

[Singh @ Jul 5th 2007 5:48AM]

This is a sad news for Chinese. After looking at a news which I got a bit angry at Chinese stuff like this one http://www.gadget9.com/2007/06/17/usb-thumdrive-from-china/

[Jason @ Jul 5th 2007 6:06AM]

The phone that exploded was a used phone purchased at a low end second hand mall in China (the phone sold for USD 50). Reportedly, the battery was a no name brand made in China.
Following this story, Chinese reports went to the mall and wanted to interview the seller. They were then surrounded by what was discribed as holligans and were beaten up until the local police showed up.
What a great country.

[Xavier Gill @ Jul 5th 2007 8:55AM]

Ha you daft racist, none of the links say that , although the Inquirer has updated and is saying it was a Motorola, which is an American company.

Oh and btw "battery was a no name brand made in China." 99% of batteries you own is a no name battery made in China. They all get made in the same places and just get different labels put on them. Infact 99% of everything you own was made in China so it can be sold at a price you can afford, so why not be a little more grateful.

He was a welder and the report says he was working in a 'hot corner' of the factory, battery overheated then kaboom, no big mystery.

[Ogami_ito @ Jul 5th 2007 9:31PM]

Xaviour you are wrong. Although most batteries are made in China or Taiwan now, there are many different factories. The big brand name phones...even the Chinese brand phones...all use Quality Controlled Vendors. The battery quite likely was an after-market battery that was replaced into the phone. And we don't know if it really was because of the battery, or because the welder did something really stupid.

[pika @ Jul 6th 2007 3:34AM]

I am just a dumb chinese kid, and I've read this news in Chinese before, and several Chinese reporters said that it's because of the battery. Btw, Li-ion battery is a very unstable substance, that's why you have a protection circuit in your Li-ion battery module.

[Jason Kam @ Jul 6th 2007 6:16AM]

OMG! I'm the daft racist?!
I've lived in China for 13 years, the rest of my life spread equally between the US, Europe and Hong Kong. I happen to be in Hong Kong NOW and this story made HEADLINES in APPLE DAILY, the most popular local newspaper (it's in Chinese, which I speak, read and write fluently). Everything I said in my post can be substantiated and confirmed through the newspaper reports.
Chinese managers make some very questionable ethical tradeoffs in the sake of profits, if you don't believe me, ask the hundreds of mothers in China whose children suffered major chronic diseases because some "smart" business person thought to replace NUTRITIOUS milk powder with basically industrial chalk.
Just cuz I feel that this is WRONG does not a racist make me. Read the papers buddy, stuff coming out of China, sure it's cheap, but at what price to your well being?

Good luck.

[jilie @ Jul 5th 2007 6:16AM]

It was an Iphone

[Sheryll @ Jul 5th 2007 7:50AM]

It was a Motorola EXPLDR

[PS3guy @ Jul 5th 2007 10:00AM]

Hater

[sandalian @ Jul 5th 2007 6:36AM]

wow, that's so bad.

@jason
I own a US$ 50 cellphone too, I better put it on a save place..

[Cheng-Jih Chen @ Jul 5th 2007 7:48AM]

Wasn't this on MythBusters?

[compuguy1088 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:10AM]

Something similar was on Mythbusters, but they were testing to see how they could get a lighter to explode/catch on fire.

[wakka_wakka @ Jul 25th 2007 5:09PM]

And there was the one where they were trying to see if a cell phone could ignite gasoline at a pump. Busted, by the way.

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 5th 2007 6:48AM]

I wonder if he was welding with it in his pocket and perhaps something transferred energy into the battery somehow, overcharging and making it blow up.

There is a ALOT of energy being released during welding. It seems plausible at least.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Jul 5th 2007 12:47PM]

@Icheb

Dumbass. You messed up the rule about quotation marks and punctuation. "It looks like this," while "this is incorrect", you see? The comma goes inside the quotation marks in this context.

Dumbass. Learn English.

[Clarus @ Jul 5th 2007 5:27PM]

If a drip of hot metal found it's way to the battery, this would explain the explosion. I heard a similar story of a foundry worker who was pouring iron and a drip of molten iron landed on the plastic lighter in his pocket. The resulting explosion left him without a leg.

[m @ Jul 5th 2007 6:24PM]

Not to rain on your a-hole rant, CaptSaltyJack, but it's not incorrect to put the comma outside a set of quotation marks. Maybe you haven't been paying attention the past 30 years. In any case, choosing whether or not to follow a mere printer's convention-- one meant to save effort while typesetting-- has nothing to do with one's understanding of proper English grammar.

[m @ Jul 5th 2007 6:36PM]

CaptSaltyJack: if you were only chastising @Icheb for his antisocial behavior, accept my apology. I'm just really sick of reading flame comments, as are you, obviously.

[Icheb @ Jul 5th 2007 7:37AM]

"There is a ALOT of energy being released during welding. It seems plausible at least."

I so hope you meant "A LOT", otherwise you are a moron.

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 5th 2007 7:46AM]

Somehow I hope you'll be able to drag my point out from my glaring grammatical trainwreck and that it's damage to you was indeed minimal.

Please excuse me.

[Ratchet the Lombax @ Jul 5th 2007 8:53AM]

Wow great going there grammar cop, glad you pointed that out for us Barney Fife. Otherwise I would have missed the whole point of his comment. Don't you have ALOT better things to do than worry about one little word?

[Icheb @ Jul 5th 2007 10:14AM]

If you two are too dumb to use proper spelling, which is especially obvious after strider's use of "it is" in "that it's damage to you was indeed minimal", then you should be disqualified from having an opinion at all. Sorry guys, but if you can't get something as simple as spelling right, everything else in life will be too difficult for you.

[Ratchet the Lombax @ Jul 5th 2007 10:48AM]

Actually I am quite capable of using proper English and grammar when and where it matters. But as this is just a comments section of a tech website and not a college dissertation I don't really care as long as I get my point across. I find it interesting that when someone can't find fault in another's comment or opinion they invariability fall back to the old "you spelt such and such wrong loser"

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 5th 2007 12:43PM]

Wow, an entire point gets thrown out for those mistakes?
Pretty harsh there, Icheb.

(I'm still waiting for something that has to do with the subject to come out of this guy, I don't know about you folks.)

You just chime right in if you want to add anything germane, Jackson. :\

Actually, I was referring to the recent developments in proximity charging for common electronic devices.
I wonder specifically if there could have been some kind of resonant something or other that induced the battery to behave that way?

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 5th 2007 7:51AM]

Everybody go easy on Icheb today, someone misused a pronoun somewhere and he's just a little touchy.

Good luck with that man.

[boneman @ Jul 5th 2007 7:53AM]

iExplode

[wakka_wakka @ Jul 25th 2007 5:13PM]

Or maybe iSplode!
hehe... just a thought

[Chip @ Jul 5th 2007 7:55AM]

I wonder if he was welding with an acetylene torch or electric arc welding? It's very possible he leaked acetylene into the air and the cellphone provided a tiny spark. I can't put together a very plausible scenario for an arc welding incident other than the cellphone battery exploding as reported in the story.

[mike @ Jul 5th 2007 8:23AM]

I've been reading a lot of these "you are an idiot" and "you are a moron" comments lately, are they really from different people or someone is deliberately trying to piss of your readers?

[Ratchet the Lombax @ Jul 5th 2007 8:48AM]

Jamie, Adam where are you we need answers now. Fire up the Mythmobile it's time to bust some Myths.

[barnz2k @ Jul 5th 2007 10:33AM]

Singh, that image is hilarious.

Mike, that would be piss OFF your reades haha - seriously yeah who cares about spelling, if its serious I'll use spell check lol. why read comments just to neg their spelling? oh no i misd sum kaptals n splling.

[Wardell Latham @ Jul 5th 2007 10:46AM]

@Icheb

If everyone who ever made a mistake or error were disqualified from having an opinion, I don't think anyone would be qualified to have an opinion, including yourself.

[DorianGray @ Jul 5th 2007 12:50PM]

No no no -- I think Icheb is right. Those who can not spell or who have a bit of trouble with diction or grammar should be excluded from any and all intellectual pursuits.

Especially all of those mathematicians, scientists, engineers, firefighters, law enforcement and military professionals who can't spell for shit. Because the *whole world* runs on never splitting your infinitives...

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 5th 2007 1:16PM]

Oh! Oh!

Let's start with the intellectuals! ;)

[Michael Leung @ Jul 5th 2007 10:51AM]

Yes, I am a Hong Konger and I live in Hong Kong.
When I heard that news, I was shocked...
In fact and according to the news,
in China, a "cheap" battery only costs about few dollars(HKD)(about 5 dollars).
Of course, that battery hasn't got any "safe device".
And also a "genuine battery" costs about HKD $150.
That's why most people will buy the "cheap" battery in China!...

[J. D. @ Jul 5th 2007 11:18AM]

I remember hearing this same "Urban Legend" 20+ years ago....except the welder was not Chinese, but American....and the object in his pocket was not a cellphone...but a Bic lighter. This is an upddated "old welder-wives" tale that is meant to teach new welders not to have junk in their shirt pocket. Pure grade-A horse-manure. The only way I'll believe this story is if I get to see the corpse.

[Will @ Jul 5th 2007 11:31AM]

I have to say, I'm really likin' the tags for this article.

[Chris @ Jul 5th 2007 1:36PM]

I just took my cellphone out of my pocket

[eric @ Jul 26th 2007 8:37AM]

haha, me too. And my lighter. And my ipod. Jesus, I am a walking bomb.

[Lemment @ Jul 5th 2007 9:04PM]

Ironically, I bet that phone and battery were made in China.(just like almost everything else)

[TIMMAH! @ Jul 5th 2007 4:45PM]

I see a Mythbusters episode (or at the very least an episode of CSI...)