Tech Shout!

A suspected mobile phone battery explosion has led to the death of a 33-year-old excavator, state police officials.

The revelation came about on Wednesday in Cheongwon, North Chungcheong Province, which is 85 miles south of Seoul. Identified as Suh, the man was found dead beside his excavator in a stone quarry in Cheongwon at 8:40 a.m. by his fellow work mates. Seo’s mobile phone was found in his shirt pocket with its battery in a terribly melted state. Sadly, he suffered major chest burns and fractures too. The Police said that the Suh’s ribs and spine were broken.

What’s not clearly known yet is that was it the battery meltdown or perhaps an external force that led to his death and also damaged his mobile phone?

Leading Korean phone company LG Electronics has admitted that it is the maker of the device.

Company officials have anonymously told the Associated Press that such an explosion is “virtually impossible”.

However, the manufacturer of the lithium-ion polymer battery is not known yet. The phone company mentioned that a Japanese and a Korean firm are its two main battery suppliers.

“We will fully cooperate with the police investigation,” an official of the electronics company said. Adding, “But we believe that the battery was very unlikely to explode. Our battery is wrapped in aluminum foil, so when there is an external shock, it should just melt, not explode.”

Doctors stated that an explosion killed the man. “He arrived dead at the emergency room,” Kim Hun, a doctor of Chungbuk National University Hospital, was quoted as saying by Kookmin Ilbo. “There were burns on his left chest, and fractures of his ribs and spine as well as hemorrhaging in the lungs. Considering all these factors, it seems that high pressure from an explosion damaged his lungs and heart, leading to his death.”

The probability of dying a natural death seems a little remote, as Seo’s family and co-workers maintained that he had no known chronic disease history. He was seen last by co-workers walking up to the quarry at around 7 a.m.

Though such kinds of incidences have taken place elsewhere, this is the very first time it has taken place in Korea. Just a few months back, a 22-year-old welder in China was killed after his mobile phone battery exploded in his chest pocket while he was welding at the Yingpan Iron Ore Dressing Plant in Gansu’s Jinta County. And well the Nokia- Matsushita news is not unknown to anybody.