Electronic cigarettes, better known as e-cigarettes, have grown into a billion-dollar industry in the past year. Almost one-fifth of smokers who tried electronic cigarettes became regular users, a European survey showed.
While this is small compared to the $35 billion in profit the leading tobacco companies made in 2010, the e-cigarette industry has already doubled in worth from 2012. The adoption rate of e-cigarettes are "remarkably high" according to a study by Peter Hajek, PhD, CClinPsych, of the U.K. Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at Queen Mary University of London.
"Together with the finding that most of the regular e-cigarette users have been using e-cigarettes daily for several months, it suggests that e-cigarettes are not just a fad likely to fade away when the novelty wears off, but that the product is developing into a genuine alternative to conventional cigarettes," the researchers wrote in the November issue of Chest.
Current research is inconclusive on the long-term health consequences of e-cigarettes for users and bystanders exposed to the vapors.
Attorneys General in 40 states have already urged the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes in the same manner as other tobacco products, due to the lack of research and concern in regards to use of e-cigarettes particularly by those under 18.
Although the Food and Drug Administration has said that it intends to regulate e-cigarettes as it does regular cigarettes, it has not yet released new rules.
"There is no bigger killer than conventional tobacco," said Ray Story, founder and CEO of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, according to USA Today. "This particular product is clearly less harmful."
