How to impose a smoking ban on lithium batteries

However, lithium batteries have been in the news again in recent times, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

It’s not the first time that lithium battery safety has been called into question. Smoking batteries - on ‘no-smoking’ flights - plagued the first year of service of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The Aljazeera news story highlights the terrifying experience of some of the passengers affected by the incidents. By January 2013, every one of the 50 aircraft sold by Boeing had been grounded. They were only permitted back into service in April of that year. The really scary thing is that the causes of the problems have never been fully established; the aircraft were allowed to fly again after modifications were made to battery systems to contain fires better, rather than to prevent them.

While lithium batteries have been the focus of most attention, all batteries pose some degree of risk by way of explosion, fire or at least giving off nasty fumes. The risk is most apparent if they are not used as they should be, and particularly if they are charged or re-charged in a way that is inappropriate for the battery chemistry. Naturally, this risk has led to various industry bodies coming together to create standards to which batteries and battery testing procedures must comply.

Nippon Airways 787 Dreamliners grounded in Tokyo, January 27th, 2013
(Kentaro IEMOTO)

While the issue of battery safety has to be taken seriously whoever you buy batteries from, the risk increases significantly if you are duped into buying counterfeit batteries, or are naïve enough to do so knowingly in order to save money. (I don’t know if Boeing has yet calculated the final cost of its Dreamliner problems, but it’s going to hurt.)

According to the Battery University, the global battery market will be valued at $74bn in 2015. Any market of this size will attract rogues and counterfeiters trying to make a fast buck. Unfortunately, there is little that the average consumer can do to distinguish the quality and performance of one battery from another. Good batteries and bad batteries look the same, feel the same, and smell the same. It’s little wonder that some companies, like Sony, make a point of warning consumers about the dangers of using counterfeit batteries. Sony’s own brand reputation is at stake if products go wrong, and consumers won’t always be smart enough to pinpoint where the blame really lies.

Not surprisingly, our recommendation is to buy from reputable suppliers: trusted battery brands sourced directly from manufacturers or from trusted, authorised distributors. Using either route, products will come with full batch traceability so, in the very unlikely event of technical problems, these can be quickly addressed and corrected.

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