iPod Dangerous When Wet

puggsincyberspace writes "What do you do when your mom washes your iPod? Fix it, of course. A teenager in Australia found out the hard way that messing with the insides of his iPod is dangerous and needed medical attention after it exploded."

Possibly beryllium oxide

[fven]

A fireman that rescued me (barely sensible) after an electronic device exploded, said that BeO was probably the culprit. I had been in the room when the device(s) exploded and was the first one to ring for help.

About 15 minutes later (I hadn't been feeling too good), I collapsed and was taken to hospital.

BeO is highly toxic by ingestion and inhalation (Material Safety Data Sheet: http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/BE/beryllium_oxide.h tml [ox.ac.uk]
).

Apparently it is one of the more common toxic substances emitted in smoke/fumes. Particularly in domestic / non-chemical-factory settings.

Re:The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screw

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, if you try to squeeze a brick of energy into as small a space as possible, there are bound to be some problems of this nature that crop up.

Re:The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screw

[baryon351]

The NINE and TEN news (australian local television) both said that the battery was torn open and that they "flash flame" when exposed to the air.

Re:Possibly beryllium oxide - Rubbish.

[Anonymous Coward]

Utter nonsense. BeO is (was) only used in some high-power RF devices in the industrial market as it has good thermal conductivity properties. You will not find it in any modern consumer products.

Lithium poly batteries the cause

[inflex]

The iPod uses lithium poly batteries, they're slim, they're powerful and they pack a punch when you rupture them.

With model aircraft, we use them a lot for our electric motors however they carry with them a lot of cautions. If you should happen to rupture or over charge them it's time to STAND CLEAR.

Typically a lipo will puff up for a bit then have a fairly impressive flame out (as the lithium starts burning). I'd personally be worried about the guy if he inhaled too much of the fumes, it's fairly toxic.

Oh, he probably ruptured the battery with the screwdriver. Normally if we have a "dud" cell, we put the cells into a bucket of salt water and then puncture the cells (UNDER WATER), the cells will bubble quite a bit and eventually after a few hours settle down.

Re:The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screw

[Shaper_pmp]

I don't know why, but I read this an another slashmeme-in-the-making:

In Soviet Russia, X Ys YOU!
In Korea, only old people X!
In Kansas, X is illegal!

Re:Li-Ion battery ?

[MORB]

The battery contains lithium. If he torn the battery opened, the water probably entered into contact with the lithium. Lithium explodes in toxic fumes when in contact with water.

Re:The kid pierced the Li Ion battery with a screw

[Hinhule]

He might've just shorted the battery, which could also cause it to explode.

There are 3 common ways for LiIon batteries to explode.

1. Short circut.
2. Overcharging.
3. Physical.

As explosions is a way to ask for being sued, most manufacturers have short circut tests as part of manufacturing. Charge regulators are also put into the casing of the battery or in the appliance (Ipod, cellphone etc). Just to make sure no law suits come from 1. and 2.

The only thing they can't protect themselves from is physical abuse on the battery itself. Like screwdriver through it.

Never short a battery

[standards]

Most all batteries - from in your car, to your watch, could potentially explode if you short it.

Trust me, a broken battery makes quite a mess.

Re:Li-Ion battery ?

[reub2000]

Group 1A metals (aka alakline metals) react with water in their metalic states. However, ionic compounds containing alkaline metals, like sodium chloride don't have this property. Looking at the name (Lithium Ion), I'd guess that it's in some type of ionic compound.

Re:I heard somewhere that

[Dogtanian]

Hints such as no screws on the outer case are as likely to mean that the device was designed to either be made cheaply (snap-together assembly) or hard to fix/modify by end-users (keeps dealers in business and users buying new devices).

Conversely, I was able to unscrew the cover of my last CRT monitor and get inside quite easily (after it had been off for a week). Anyone who knows anything about monitors knows that an end-user should *not* be messing around inside on of these (ob-warning: The capacitors inside a CRT display can retain _lethal_ amounts of charge even days after being switched off).

McDonalds coffee myth *again*

[Dogtanian]

Sorry, but it always bugs me that this is brought up implicitly or explictly as an example of 'public stupidity' and 'bad lawsuits'.

Read this [centerjd.org] and note particularly point 12:-

McDonald's admitted that its coffee is "not fit for consumption" when sold because it causes severe scalds if spilled or drunk.

McDonalds admitted its coffee was 40 to 50 degrees hotter than is fit for human consumption [216.239.59.104] (Google cache; article is gone from original website).