Recently it has become difficult to go anywhere without seeing or smelling billowing plumes of white smoke. Fortunately, these are not the noxious clouds that one might encounter outside pubs and clubs on Saturday nights, in fact, the smell is quite delicious. So, what’s going on?
The answer is vaping, the latest social phenomenon that is picking up major steam.
Yesterday was No Smoking Day. Unlike other similar Internet-driven campaigns, which are usually driven by fun hashtags and emojis on Twitter (#hugahoundday #worldavocadobrunchday #killmenowday), No Smoking Day is an annual health awareness day in the UK that aims to give smokers an extra nudge to kick the habit.
It seems to be working. Official statistics published on gov.uk in 2018 showed that smoking in Britain had fallen below 15 per cent of the adult population for the very first time. There are now 6.1 million smokers in England.
But as anyone who has ever quit smoking will tell you, it’s no mean feat.
So what have people been doing to plug the gaps in their lungs? Enter the vape.
Vaping is “the act of inhaling and exhaling the aerosol, often referred to as vapor, which is produced by an e-cigarette or similar device. The term is used because e-cigarettes do not produce tobacco smoke, but rather an aerosol, often mistaken for water vapor, that actually consists of fine particles,” According to Dr Linda Richter, Director of Policy Research and Analysis at Centre on Addiction.
“The e-liquid in vaporizer products usually contains a propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin-based liquid with nicotine, flavouring and other chemicals and metals, but not tobacco.”
A healthier alternative then?
Vape flavours include funky fruity numbers such as mango, black cherry-berry, pomegranate, guava and snow pear.
An estimated 3.2 million people in Britain now use e-cigarettes or vapes, according to a survey conducted by the anti-smoking charity, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). This is compared with around 7.4 million who smoke tobacco cigarettes. The survey also found that 40 percent of vapers are tobacco smokers trying to quit.
As a result, the vape market in Britain is now one of the top three in the world, behind Japan and the USA. In 2016, the market size for smokeless products and vaping was valued at over $1billion.
This explains the recent explosion in corner shop-sold e-cigarette paraphernalia and more specific high-street vendors. There are currently seven official vape-shops in Islington alone.
Steaming up outside one of these is Oscar, a self-professed “serial vaper”, who extols the virtues of the electronic alternative.
“I used to spend up to £50 a week on cigarettes, including two pouches of tobacco, Rizla and filters,” he says. “Since I started vaping I’m down to £15, that’s for vape-liquid and replacement coils – the little bit of metal that heats up and produces the vapour. A standard vape will cost you about £20-40.”
The newest and most popular vaping product is the JUUL – a small, sexy, device that looks a bit like a USB. JUUL products now account for about 72 per cent of the market share of vaping products in the United States.
However, despite the vape’s steamy allure, JUUL products still contain a concerning amount of nicotine. Research suggests that a single flavour cartridge carries the same nicotine quantity as a whole pack of cigarettes.
“A growing body of evidence indicates that vaping products may be dangerous. Despite early optimism when these products first came on the market in the late 2000s, health advocates now recommend caution in using them,” adds Dr Richter.
Her comments were echoed by Dr Chris Gordon, who wrote in Metro this week, “In all laboratory and industrial units, many of the solvents used in vaping must be safely evacuated by law using extraction units. How then can it be OK to heat these solvents purely for the purpose of inhaling them?”
They might look, smell and taste (err, from what my friends tell me…) better, but as with any substitutes for inherently addictive and dangerous products, there are always likely to be elements of risk that are retained.
“The analogy could be that a car crash at 20mph is safer than one at 70mph – but it’s better not to have one at all,” adds Dr Gordon.
