The Navy has banned e-cigarettes on ships(except in designated smoking areas), but not for any health concerns. It seems e-cigs are powered by a lithium battery, and like a lot of other lithium batteries, can overheat and start a fire.
Navy weighs e-cigarette ban amid safety concerns
The real engineering limit on electronic devices, these days, is a lack of smaller, more powerful batteries. Lithium batteries, in almost every application have had problems with overheating and some causing fires. This ranges from laptops and hoverboards, to the Boeing Dreamliner. This returns smoking restrictions back to the days when it was only a fire hazard.
It's a strange path for technology. On one hand we have science working to reduce the health hazard of sucking tar laden smoke into our lungs, it creates the hazard of dying of smoke inhalation from a fire caused by a safe cigarette.
Technical note: Commercial airliners once had a "NO SMOKING" lamp, and when it was lit, the instruction was obvious. The expression, "The smoking lamp is lit" goes back to the British Navy, long before there was a US Navy. In those days, long before matches and cigarette lighters, an oil lamp was used to light a sailor's pipe. Smoking was a leisure activity. No sailor could climb the rigging and keep a pipe in his teeth. When the smoking lamp was lit, it was time to sit down and enjoy a nice bowl.
Navy weighs e-cigarette ban amid safety concerns
The real engineering limit on electronic devices, these days, is a lack of smaller, more powerful batteries. Lithium batteries, in almost every application have had problems with overheating and some causing fires. This ranges from laptops and hoverboards, to the Boeing Dreamliner. This returns smoking restrictions back to the days when it was only a fire hazard.
It's a strange path for technology. On one hand we have science working to reduce the health hazard of sucking tar laden smoke into our lungs, it creates the hazard of dying of smoke inhalation from a fire caused by a safe cigarette.
Technical note: Commercial airliners once had a "NO SMOKING" lamp, and when it was lit, the instruction was obvious. The expression, "The smoking lamp is lit" goes back to the British Navy, long before there was a US Navy. In those days, long before matches and cigarette lighters, an oil lamp was used to light a sailor's pipe. Smoking was a leisure activity. No sailor could climb the rigging and keep a pipe in his teeth. When the smoking lamp was lit, it was time to sit down and enjoy a nice bowl.
