Teen Was Handed an E-Cig. Then a Boom, and Blindness

It's against state and local laws to sell e-cigs to minors
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 15, 2016 8:37 AM CDT
Teen Was Handed an E-Cig. Then a Boom, and Blindness
Leor Domatov has suffered major injuries to his eyes and hands.   (Courtesy of Domatov family)

A New York teenager has learned an anti-vaping lesson in the most painful of ways: An e-cigarette exploded in his face. Leor Domatov, 14, took a bus to the Kings Plaza mall in Brooklyn with friends last week and stopped at a vaping kiosk near the mall's entrance, where a clerk allowed the minor to handle products, reports the New York Daily News. But when the Plaza Vapes kiosk clerk connected the wrong battery to a vaporizer cartridge, it exploded—partially blinding the young teen as it pierced his corneas in both eyes and burned his hands, leaving a "large gash" in one of them, as the Daily News puts it.

The eighth-grader tells the paper that he can't see out of his left eye and has a "little bit" of vision in his right. "The duty falls on Kings Plaza and the kiosk owner to make sure there are signs in place to warn the children," the family's attorney tells Pix11. It's illegal in New York state for kids under 18 to buy e-cigarettes; New York City is even stricter, with the ban extending to anyone under 21. (Here's why vaping is illegal on US flights.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X