this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025

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Lithium-ion battery waste fires are increasing, and vapes are a big part of it (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@beehaw.org

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

2024 was "a year of growth," according to fire-suppression company Fire Rover, but that's not an entirely good thing.

The company, which offers fire detection and suppression systems based on thermal and optical imaging, smoke analytics, and human verification, releases annual reports on waste and recycling facility fires in the US and Canada to select industry and media. In 2024, Fire Rover, based on its fire identifications, saw 2,910 incidents, a 60 percent increase from the 1,809 in 2023, and more than double the 1,409 fires confirmed in 2022.

Publicly reported fire incidents at waste and recycling facilities also hit 398, a new high since Fire Rover began compiling its report eight years ago, when that number was closer to 275.

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[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Stop selling disposable vapes, this is not complicated. I've since stopped but first encountered vapes back when they called it e-smoking and the devices where really crude. After a few years they finally got something decently reliable and reusable down and people had their personal device.

I'm not even sure when disposables became a thing but the notion of use one and discard electronics is nuts. The whole industry could do well to come up with some standards so you don't have to search out some specific model of atomizer to fit a certain piece, but it's not impossible.

[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The UK is about to ban disposable vapes, but I fear it may achieve little.

What the legislation does is to define what "reusable" means, and demand that vapes must meet that.

In reality, I suspect that manufacturers will simply adjust their strategies to produce vapes that are "technically" reusable and rechargeable and meet the law in a bare-minimum way, but really are intended to be used exactly once, just like disposable ones were, and that's exactly how they will continue to be treated by consumers.

Cost will probably go up 20% to cover it, but that's all, and in the end even more material will be going in landfill.

In my opinion, what the legislation should have done is to set an absolute minimum price on the cost of a vape pen. That would be very heavy-handed, but it would actually create the strong financial motivation required to force consumers to genuinely treat the vape pen as something they will re-use.

[–] Gronk@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago

At least it can't be as bad as what we've got in Australia.

A ham fisted law passed through to ban 'all vapes' except for a select few that are manufactured by philip morris and the other big tobacco companies.

The tax on cigarettes alongside this has made an extremely lucrative black market for organised crime.

[–] variouslegumes@reddthat.com 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's insane that disposables with lithium ion batteries are legal.

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They literally only exist because of all the government regulations that decimated the industry "because of the children."

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not exactly. Toy-shaped non-nicotine fruit-flavored cheap disposables, are the best thing to get children hooked up on vaping.

Tobacco companies used to promote candy cigarettes for the same purpose.

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This is literally the argument they used and it's complete bullshit propaganda. Can you elaborate in detail on what makes it "toy shaped?" Do you consume fruit and or fruit-flavored things as an adult? I'm surprised you didn't also mention "bright colors" as another draw being so appealing to children as well. I guess I never got the memo as an adult that I should only be consuming and enjoying drab colored, unflavored oatmeal for all my meals as color and flavor are no longer appealing to me.

I suppose I should be forced to smoke cancer-causing cigarettes produced by big tobacco for my crime of enjoying nicotine and flavors as an adult all so some shitty parents can be absolved of their duty as parents. While we're at it let's also ban things like D&D and rock music because those lure children into worshipping the devil which leads to things like talking back and human sacrifice.

Maybe after we ban everything dangerous, we can take our children to McDonalds to buy them an artery clogging cheeseburger happy meal and a large coke to celebrate before dropping them back off in front of the TV, so they can watch their commercials interfaced with the occasional colorful cartoon while they play with their happy meal toy and we go back to not giving a shit about them.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can you elaborate in detail on what makes it "toy shaped?"

If you didn't get the memo about marketing targeting, there are courses for that. You can drop the sarcasm.

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

How convenient that none of the manufacturer or product names are listed for any of these devices except the "Moti Pop" which appears to be a black market disposable from China. It's almost as if someone just fabricated a bunch of items or cherry picked a bunch of already illegal devices in order to push the FUD angle. Can you provide any listings or images showing that any of these were ever sold in a vape shop anywhere in the western world because I've been vaping for 13 years now and have never once seen anything even remotely resembling anything like these sold in any store. It's just more bullshit propaganda.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You call it "bullshit propaganda", because you haven't seen black market disposables from China advertised at you local vape shop? Have you considered that, maybe, you haven't seen them... precisely because they were stopped at customs?

No, I'm not even going to look for a SKU listing, just for your dismissal. Go believe it's FUD if that makes you happier. Ask your government agencies to lift all bans, for extra un-FUDding.

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You aren't going to look for them because you just grabbed whatever image you found from a Google search and have no clue what you're even talking about.

If these even exist, the only reason why a black market would exist for vapes is because of the idiotic bans that created it by killing the legitimate market further proving my point. Furthermore your argument that they're "stopped at customs" contradicts your previous argument that they're being marketed and sold to kids since they aren't being sold at all.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A random Google search would find you these articles:

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2763273/vapes-ape-comics-to-lure-kids

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11436029/FDA-cracks-e-cigarettes-child-friendly-packaging.html

I'm not going to discuss recent history revisionism, circular argumentation, or the illusion that your country is the only one in the world. Have fun!

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Imagine that, your previous images were pulled from an article claiming these are being sold in Thailand by Chinese companies just like I thought, so your argument is that vapes should be banned in the US because of what may or may not be happening in Thailand?

or the illusion that your country is the only one in the world.

How convenient for you and your argument since that means you only need to find one example of a bad thing happening in the world and can then apply that bad example to millions of other unrelated products sold elsewhere in the world. What happened to your argument claiming that these were being stopped by US Customs? That so quickly morphed into "it doesn't matter if these products were actually shipped and sold here because Thailand!"

Your other article, from the rag that is the Daily Mail, claims that Squid Games is a children's TV show, and only lists one western company receiving a notice (which they incorrectly called a "Canadian" company rather than a California based company in true Daily Mail fashion) for having a vape that resembles a banana. How convincing since we all know how crazy and insaitiable children get when they see something that slightly resembles a banana. They gotta have it!

I'm not going to discuss ...

Didn't you already say that when you claimed you "didn't get those images from a quick Google search" and "wouldn't bother to verify the legitimacy of these products" even though you just now claimed to do a quick Google search to find the very articles that your images came from? Why such inconsistencies?

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 1 points 6 days ago

You're right. Please tell me more.