Steve K's Vaping World

It’s been all over the news the last couple days.  Graphic footage of some poor schmuck’s pants exploding in a Kentucky gas station.  The Fireball was caused by the man’s e-cigarette, a tragic accident to be sure.

Fires caused by vaping devices are sadly a thing that has happened in the past, and will likely continue to happen in the future.  Lithium battery technology is unstable at best.  Any time a company takes a shortcut it can result in something like this happening.

Heck, even companies that don’t take shortcuts like Apple are not immune to their lithium-powered devices catastrophically failing.

So, how exactly does this lead to the scary notion of a shadow ban on vaping products?

Hoverboards.

Those obnoxious little two-wheeled scooters that were so popular this past holiday season have also had a lot of heat (or so to speak) from the media and government surrounding fires.

There was so much attention that the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced recently that they may ban the importation of hoverboards that aren’t certified by Underwriter’s Laboratories.

As you might have guessed, currently there are no UL certified hoverboards.  It’s sort of the same chick and egg problem we’ve seen before in the vaping industry with prohibitionists screaming about FDA approval.

Now, the FDA’s attempt on a blanket ban failed long ago.  But, that wouldn’t stop another agency like Consumer Safety from issuing an edict like they are with the two wheeled scooters.

When an exploding e-cigarette gets viral coverage right around the same time this whole hoverboard fire thing is getting attention, that makes me draw parallels.  Is it possible that the same thing can happen to vaping devices?

It seems to me like it could.  Though I don’t think the entire category could be banned since there will always be stuff made in the US and not imported and external batteries and chargers are UL listed. But, it seems like at least some segment of the e-cigarette industry could be in danger here.

After all, there’s probably not a battery of tests at the UL for e-cigarettes.

First they came for our hoverboards and I said nothing…

So, what do you think?  Am I overreacting? Or is it entirely possible that some vaping products could be banned in the near future?