Are Cell phone batteries deadly weapons, which can be used as explosive devices?

Question

What if they get too hot to hold when talking?

Answer 1

YES!
There are reports all around the world in major cities such as New York, Tokyo, Toronto, L.A., etc. of ordinary cell phone users who are so severely burned that they are in hospital. "Burned" is what the newspapers report, but the cell phones batteries do not just 'burn', --the foot long flame that bursts out can amputate an arm or a leg, and is hot enough to blast through the side of an aircraft, including through the hydraulics and electrical conduits.
The local battery shops, which I have talked to, refuse to touch Lithium Ion batteries, since they would have to construct expensive fire-proof brick lined, explosion proof, power vented, fume hood work areas, and follow bomb-disposal procedures. Yet, people can carry any number of these batteries on them at the airports - in fact, at the airports, you are asked to VERIFY that your cell phones are completely operational. This is much like having to prove that grenade launchers and bazookas are armed, loaded, and operational, before entering an aircraft.
It is highly doubtful that highly dangerous cell phones will be excluded from aircraft flights, since the rich and powerful executives, at all levels of government and business, all love their toys, and would lobby to prevent these deadly weapons from any flight that " THEY " are on. Yet, on the same flight, safety- pins are removed from all ladies' dresses and skirts ( wink, wink, wink ) as deadly weapons! Such folly.
There seems to be a not- coincidental failure rate of batteries in typical cell phones. If there is a call for a replacement battery for one specific cell phone model, the battery people expect, and get, dozens of calls - all within the same week or two, as though there is a timer, or " expiry" mechanism built into, or sent over the cell phone network. All at once, ALL the batteries in all of one model, will no longer charge, or discharge, properly, and they will severely overheat while charging, and get even hotter if left on, under use for 10 or 20 minutes. The standard fail time for any lithium ion battery is 2 to 3 years, yet the batteries in the cell phones that commit mass suicide, are closer to one year old, not 3- long enough to void the warranty, but way short of normal product life ( a normal cell phone " PLAN " is 3 years )
I have taken in a couple of batteries that are BLOATED, and was told NOT to ever use them, as there was only minutes left before they would explode with a foot long, 2000+ degree flame. Even charging them would be dangerous.
To use these as a weapon, you would use a current limiting circuit to SLOWLY charge the batteries to maximum, in a cold environment, and then, turn OFF the phone. At an airport, you would turn on and demonstrate that the phone was working -- only a few seconds, and turn it off. Once on the plane, you choose when to turn on the phone, where to locate the explosion, and then call the phone so that it is at the maximum power drain, to maintain the connection signal. The battery would explode within 10 or 20 minutes.
Most batteries now have computer chip control of the charge and discharge, and the internal battery circuit board " talks" to the control circuits of the phone -- ( " SMART batteries " ) which can be programmed over the phone cellular network, from anywhere in the world. Thus, if you knew the programming codes, you could send a signal to "over" charge the batteries at a given point in time. The replacement batteries cost more than a new phone, so that you could "terminate" an entire line of cell phones ( like the expirey date on a loaf of bread ), ensuring that 'customers' would all buy new phones, at a date which you could choose in advance.
It would be impossible to memorize the shape of every cell phone, to know which ones had a bloated, ready- to- explode, battery, and at every airport I have been through, only the front display is looked at, to prove the phone is " on ". Most new phones have a rounded, designer back that completely hides the battery, so that it impossible to know what "bloated" looks like, unless you had a normal battery beside it for comparison.
The recent RECALL of batteries for computer laptops, which burned holes through the entire laptops, melting through everything including hard drives, demonstrates the fierce power of the 2000 degree flame. NOTE THAT laptop batteries are bigger, and generally LESS dangerous than cell phone batteries, - the CELL PHONE batteries are pushing the limits of power per weight and size, while the laptop batteries can be bigger and heavier. All technical information I have read, shows that the better the power to weight/size, the more unstable, and more dangerous the battery construction becomes. To get a rough idea of the construction, and problems involved in Lithium Ion batteries, you can read the following links. Note that CELL PHONE lithium Ion battery details and construction, and the many explosion details are NOT well posted on the web anywhere.... I have only found a few reports, check these:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Cell phone explosions
http://www.esdjournal.com/articles/cellphone/updates.htm

EXPLODING CELL PHONES
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.wirelessconsumers.org/site/pp.asp%3Fc=giJYJ3OOF%26b=14007

FEDS Warn of Cell Phone Hazards
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/cpsc%5Fcell%5Fbatteries.html

Risk of Cell Phone Explosions Growing
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/cell%5Fphone%5Fbatteries.html

BATTERY SAFETY
http://www.mpoweruk.com/safety.htm

STUDENT INJURED BY CELL PHONE
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/11/19/news/casper/d46d708b1ce56725872570bc00075bc3.txt
A 19-year-old Casper College student is being treated for severe burns after her cell phone battery exploded, catching her bed on fire.
The cell phone was being charged near the woman's bed when the fire started, said Rich Fujita, director of college relations.
"Her roommate said the flames jumped about 18 inches in the air and caught the mattress on fire," he said. (( MY NOTE: 18 INCHES, not 1/10th inch as stated by one ANSWER ! ! ))

What is causing li-ion batteries to overheat
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dell-battery-fire.htm

Details of the construction, charging, and operation of Li-Ion
http://www.huret.com/overview.pdf

Very good details on SMART batteries, with electronic circuits that talk to the device they power - used in laptops, phones, cameras, etc.
http://www.buchmann.ca/article21-page1.asp

Manufacturers recall 6 Million Li-Ion batteries
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216340,00.html

Note this interesting discussion of rules on AIRLINE Li-Ion battery transportation:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/06/09/16/2236256.shtml

A short Lithium ION Safety sheet:
http://www.customidea.com/documentation/LithiumSafetyManual.pdf
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There are a number of companies in the world that take apart computer chips, layer by layer, to make a complete list of the diagrams, the fabrication techniques, and the internal programming of the chips. I have offered to supply bloated, ready to explode, batteries, with the control chip circuits, to some of these companies, but none of them have replied. In fact, no one has done anything - probably due to the fact that persons high up the food chain do NOT want to be forced to leave their toys behind! ( Ignore it, and maybe it will go away ! ).
If your cell phone battery gets noticeably hot while charging, or in use, on an increasing, regular basis, check to see if the battery pack is bloated. If there is bulging, anywhere, STOP using it immediately ! ! ! IF it bursts out in flame, you could loose an arm or have a flame cut through you. The flame will cut right through bones as though they were butter... please be cautious!

There are thousands of millions of cell phones and pagers and communicators in service, so that the " PERCENTAGE " of people who have an explosion or fire, is small. However, you do not want to be one of those people !!

Answer 2

They have a kill distance of 1/10 of an inch.....
They have a burn distance of "direct contact" only....

You'd have to eat that battery to take yourself out....

Excessive overvoltage will cause the battery to explode, but it is encased in a plastic shell that limits the distance.

Answer 3

i dont know and i dont wanna find out. i use my cell phone for phone calls not built for deadly weapons

Answer 4

I don't know but regular batteries can. just make sure a paper clip is touching both ends and it will overheat and explode

Answer 5

yes, if they are a lithium-ion or li-ion battery, which most are, if they exceed over a certain temperature aka, get too hot, they can catch fire and/or explode

Answer 6

they're flammable, but they don't explode due to overtalking or overgossiping. they just emit microwave radiation that may affect your body.

Answer 7

i dont think so.. not wat i have heard of...