○ Consumer’s special attention is needed when using the lithium ion battery which is used in notebook PCs or cellular phones. The cases reported ranged from fires to explosions.

 

○ The number of accidents involving lithium ion batteries reported to the Consumer Injury Surveillance System has been on the increase for the last 3 years and 38 cases have been reported. When looking at the cases by equipment type, cellular phones recorded the highest incident rate (28 cases or 73.7%).  And most of these incidents occurred during usage (66.7%).

 

○ According to the Korea Consumer Agency (President: Myung-Hee Park), 38 incidents, caused by lithium ion battery have been reported to the Consumer Injury Surveillance System (CISS) and the analysis is as following;

 

□ Accidents involving lithium ion batteries has been on a steady rise, incidents related to cellular phones were most commonly reported.

 

 (No. of Claim Cases, %)

 

 

 

 

□ Growing concerns over the safety of lithium ion batteries due to fires and explosions

 

 

 

(No. of Claim Cases, %)

 

Equipment	Incident Type					Total
	Swelling	Fire	Explosion	High temperature	Blowout
Lap top computer (PC)	0	0	2	0	0	2
Cellular Phone	10	9	3	4	2	28
PDA	1	0	0	0	0	1
MP3	1	0	1	1	0	3
Navigation	2	0	0	1	1	4
Total	14(36.8%)	9(23.7%)	6(15.8%)	6(15.8%)	3(7.9%)	38(100%)