Vape users could burn their houses down amid reckless Stoptober social media trend: Experts issue urgent warning

This warning isn’t just smoke and mirrors.Experts are issuing an alert to social media users participating in “Stoptober” — a trend that sees people use the month of October to quit vaping by hurling their devices into water.While the act might render the vapes useless, it can also pose serious danger, potentially starting a fire that could destroy your home.

Pascal Culverhouse of Electric Tobacconist said that because the vapes are made with lithium-ion batteries, they can cause an explosion when submerged.“While legitimate vapes are robustly made and have safety measures built into them, dropping your vape pen into a glass of water could cause it to short circuit and make them explode,” he told The Mirror.

“Even if the device doesn’t explode, if it were to malfunction in the [trash] bin, it could quickly set your home on fire and have deadly consequences.There is no reason to be doing this with your vape pens, as they aren’t designed to be put in water.”Instead, Culverhouse advises going the extra mile regarding responsibility by either recycling them or turning them back into a vape shop.Meanwhile, other content creators are warning against the trend online as well.“Not only do you help the environment doing it this way, but you also keep your family safe by not throwing potentially damaged electronics in the bin in your home”.Putting it simply, according to the company Ufine Battery, lithium has a “highly reactive nature” when paired with water or moisture.“When water infiltrates a lithium battery, it instigates a series of detrimental reactions that can lead to heat generation, hydrogen gas release, and potential fire hazards,” the company claims.

Unrelated to the trend, other people have demonstrated the combustible effects of throwing lithium batteries into water as well.One YouTube video showed the lithium burst into sparks and flames in mere seconds....