Consumers need to be aware of the possibility of fire or explosion when they purchase a lithium ion battery or a product that requires use of one. Fires and explosions from Li-ion car batteries have caused people to lose their entire house and all belongings not to mention loss of life. Fire and explosion risk increases if the battery has been damaged, overcharged, if water enters the battery, during charging, and other reasons.
My concern is for (1) car batteries that are used in areas that flood, areas where roads are salted all winter long, car accidents that cause damage to the battery and subsequent fire/explosion & batteries that simply ignite during charging in one’s garage. Does it cost more to insure a car with Li-ion batteries? Will the insurance pay for damages to your home or to nearby vehicles, people and structures if the car is parked away from home when the fire/explosion happens? When one’s car is no longer usable, who will properly dispose of Li-ion battery? Will wrecking yards take EVs? How will the batteries be transported to places where they can be properly disposed/recycled?
(2) Lithium ion batteries in products other than cars in your home. Li-ion batteries in home products like computers, phones, cameras, lawn mowers, and other appliances cause similar hazards and could cause a home fire, especially during charging. Will our homeowners insurance cover damage cause by Li-ion batteries? If consumers throw these batteries away with regular trash it could cause a fire/explosion in the garbage truck and/or the landfill. Smoke from a landfill fire will cause health effects for firefighters and people living nearby, and these fires are very difficult to put out. Twelve fires were recorded in Swiss recycling facilities in 2023.
(3) Lithium ion batteries in airplanes. Li-ion batteries cannot go in checked luggage, they must go with the passenger in carry-on luggage. This is because a fire/explosion inside the cargo compartment cannot be contained and dealt with by the air crew during a flight. Since January 2014, there have been at least four serious incidents of lithium-ion battery fires/smoke on passenger aircraft. UPS Airlines Flight 6 crashed in Dubai after its payload of batteries spontaneously ignited.
(4) Lithium ion batteries in the mail. The post office puts posters up telling us not to mail these batteries or the products that contain them but how many people obey this rule or even know what kind of battery is in the product they are mailing? If a mail package with these batteries goes by air then it is in the cargo hold of an airplane that probably has passengers on board. It’s only a matter of time before a passenger plane crashes because of mail causing a cargo fire/explosion.
(5) Environmental & human rights aspects. Extraction of lithium, nickel, cobalt, manufacture of solvents, and mining byproducts present significant environmental and health hazards. Cobalt sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is often mined by workers using hand tools with few safety precautions, resulting in frequent injuries and deaths. Pollution from these mines has exposed people to toxic chemicals. Human rights activists have alleged, and investigative journalism reported confirmation that child labor is used in these mines. Extraction companies do not always inform workers of the hazards associated with this work.
Are these batteries really acceptable in our homes, cars, on highways, trains, and planes? Are we really okay with poor indigenous people, often children, getting paid little and being exposed to health hazards to mine the stuff to make these batteries? Consumers need to be aware of all the responsibilities of owning, using, and disposing of these batteries and the products that contain them.