The general public handling bare lion cells has increased significantly, whereas the amount of incidents related to cells catching fire etc. doesn't seem to hav

The general public handling bare lion cells has increased significantly, whereas the amount of incidents related to cells catching fire etc. doesn't seem to have increased correspondingly. This may in part be due to certification and testing methodologies [0] for battery packs. The issue is that not all cells/battery packs go through this testing, so unless the batteries have been appropriately certified, there are restrictions on the handling and transportation of these batteries (for example non UN 38.3-rated cells are not allowed on planes [1]). CE manufacturers test and certify the batteries in their products ([2], [3], [4] for example) which is why Amazon can ship them by air and passengers can carry them on planes. The issue is that 3rd party batteries may be uncertified and possibly unsafe. Lenovo doesn't want to take responsibility for an uncertified battery in one of their laptops downing an airliner [5] so they disallow the use of batteries they haven't certified. I doubt this is a nefarious scheme and more about potential liability. (at my company we use lithium-ion battery packs for our field equipment and had to become very familiar with these issues when IATA promulgated their lithium/lithium-ion battery pack shipping rules a couple of years ago. [0] http://phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_D4B2D17039E706213B36C1B309D41DCF8B4A0200/filename/UN_Test_Manual_Lithium_Battery_Requirements.pdf http://phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_D4B2D17039E70621... [1] http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/lithium-battery-guidance-document-2016-en.pdf http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/lithium-bat... [2] https://www.lenovo.com/lenovo/us/en/Lenovo_Battery_DoC_Letter.pdf https://www.lenovo.com/lenovo/us/en/Lenovo_Battery_DoC_Lette... [3] https://www.apple.com/legal/more-resources/docs/apple-product-information-sheet.pdf https://www.apple.com/legal/more-resources/docs/apple-produc... [4] http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/environ/comply/dell_battery_declaration_january_2013.pdf http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/environ/compl... [5] http://news.yahoo.com/fires-involving-lithium-batteries-planes-191455142--finance.html http://news.yahoo.com/fires-involving-lithium-batteries-plan...