Dozens of countries are
introducing legislation restricting the use of electronic cigarettes,
but their proponents say they are harmless and their use could in fact
save millions of lives. Could they be right?
A group of friends sits around a table in a pub in south London,
exchanging stories and putting the world to rights in a cloud of scented
vapour.
One of them is 31-year-old Jonny Lavery.
"I had a big problem with death, a really big problem with dying," he says. "I wanted to avoid dying at all costs."
But three years ago, Lavery realised that as a smoker of 15
years, his chance of doing this was diminishing. Roughly half the
world's smokers die from their habit. The trouble was Johnny just
enjoyed it too much to quit.
Then he found an alternative - the electronic cigarette.
These gizmos contain batteries and "e-liquid" -
a solution of propylene glycol or glycerine - containing a nicotine
dose. A battery inside the e-cigarette heats up a coil attached to a
wick. When the liquid is presented to the hot wick it produces vapour
which can be inhaled.
They don't quite match the nicotine hit of a real cigarette,
but they come close enough to have won over 1.3 million users in the UK
alone (compared to nine million tobacco smokers). In the US, e-cigarette
sales could pass $1bn (£650m) this year - up from $600m (£390m) in
2012.
Since there is no smoke, puffing on e-cigarettes is called
vaping, not smoking. The group of men and women sitting in the pub call
themselves vapers - they meet regularly to vape and to talk about
vaping.
A little nerdy, they resemble a gang of home-brewing enthusiasts more than a stop-smoking support group.
They inspect one another's vaporisers - which come in all
manner of shapes and sizes - and sniff one another's vapour. "I'm
currently vaping toffee popcorn," says Shari Levy, emanating sweetness.
"And this one here is coffee. And this one is tutti frutti - that's nice
for the summer. Amaretto with a morning coffee is just delicious."
Vaping paraphernalia comes in all shapes and sizes
Like everyone else in the group, Levy initially used
e-cigarettes to help wean herself off the real thing. After a while she
realised she no longer really liked the taste of tobacco.
While e-cigarettes can be used as a stepping stone to ending
nicotine addiction, some vapers see them as a way to continue a hobby
they enjoy without the attendant fear of death. That's because although
nicotine is the addictive ingredient in cigarettes many experts do not
think it is especially harmful. It's the tar and other nasties in
tobacco that kill.
"Nicotine is not very dangerous, and it's very unlikely
someone will overdose on the nicotine in electronic cigarettes by
inhaling the vapour," says Maciej Goniewicz from Roswell Park Cancer
Institute in Buffalo, New York - an oncologist who has analysed
e-cigarettes and the vapours they produce.
He says that in the absence of research into the effects of
long-term vaping, it is impossible to say that e-cigarettes are
absolutely safe, but we know enough to say they are safer than the real
thing. There is no such thing as passive vaping.
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