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How Vaping Became A Worldwide Phenomenon And Billion-Earning Industry
It’s becoming hard to avoid noticing. Wherever you go nowadays, the trails of pure white smoke are becoming more and more visible. Vaping is a craze that looks like it’s here to stay. It’s a billion-pound earning industry and set to earn $22 billion more in the next five years worldwide. But how exactly did it become such a triumph? It’s a story that’s more multifaceted than you might think and goes much further than just beyond its appeal to the consumer.
The obvious health benefits
It would be unwise, if not inaccurate, to state that there are zero health concerns when it comes to vaping. However, when it’s compared to smoking cigarettes, the health benefits are obvious. Several studies have all shown the significant signs of the safety of long-term vaping, while there have been no studies as of yet that have shown it to have any significant contributions to preventable chronic diseases. The research is ongoing, however, and other factors might be revealed with time. As far as conventional wisdom goes, however, vaping has proven significantly safer than smoking meaning that more health professionals and informed individuals are able to recommend it to smokers. If anything, most of the dangers as of late have been down to device malfunctions, most of them caused by misuse and the rest being designed out of the latest products.
Smoking is getting harder
While the fortunes of the vaping industry are on the rise, the tobacco industry is getting the other end of the see-saw effect. It’s no surprise that the two industries share a direct correlation. So, what trouble has big tobacco been in that has allowed vaping to flourish? The smoking ban of 2010 has drastically reduced smoking in public spaces, while the removal of branding and the regulations that force shops to stop openly displaying tobacco products all play a huge role. Meanwhile, e-cigarettes and vape juice remain largely visible and open to marketing, making them much more widely available to the consumer.
It smells and tastes better
Beyond the health risks, smoking has a lot of societal and hygiene connotations connected to it that have long proved some of the strongest criticisms of the habit. The taste of cigarettes has never been a strong selling point, not even with the rise of menthols, and the smell can be described as nothing but off-putting. Vape juice, on the other hand, comes in a variety of flavours (you can even make your own) that smell much better and leave less of a long-term lingering odour. Nor do they stain or discolour teeth or nails as smoking is widely known to do. This makes it a lot more socially acceptable to vape, even if many businesses like restaurants and pubs are still making the choice to disallow it in their premises.
It costs a lot less
Beyond the health impacts of smoking, it has been widely criticised because of the economic impact it can have on those who indulge in the habit. Most smokers smoke more than a pack of twenty cigarettes a day and this could cost as much as £1,730 a year. A single bottle of vape juice often costs less than a twenty pack of cigarettes and provides much more use than the cigarettes. Even despite the fact that vapers tend to vape more regularly than smokers smoke. The cost-effectiveness of vaping to the consumer removes a significant barrier to purchases. This is set to only continue as the government continues to impose higher costs for tobacco products, going as far as potentially increasing the price twice in one year.
More convenient for consumers
As a modern industry, vaping has largely found its home on the internet. While it can be purchased in grocery shops as well as smaller dedicated premises and stalls being set up across the country, a lot of the supply to consumers is carried out through the internet. As well as selling vape juice and vaping supplies, these online businesses are also proving some of the greatest sources of information on vaping to the public at large. With the number of studies in support of vaping, there’s little reason for them to display bias in their findings, too. The facts speak for themselves, as they say.
It’s an effective addiction treatment
Vaping has become a habit all it’s own, though a relatively benign one. However, the greatest contribution to its success has undoubtedly been due to the widespread health crisis of smoking. Past nicotine therapy options such as patches and gum have had their positive impacts, but the rates of quitting associated with those pale in comparison to the number of successful treatments using e-cigarettes. There are few healthcare professionals (such as doctors) who are prescribing them just yet, with the public health service still using the other methods available. However, privately, more people are turning to vaping in order to stop their addiction to cigarettes. The different levels of nicotine available within the products also make it easier to wean oneself off the chemical entirely.
It’s more socially acceptable
The lack of a bad odour or lingering smell when it comes to vaping compared to cigarettes plays into this and has already been mentioned. However, vaping is considerably much more socially acceptable than smoking. There might be some mocking involved, but in general, people are widely accepting of those who vape. As mentioned, this isn’t necessarily true of all enclosed public spaces and many workplaces are moving to stop it in the office, if only for misguided or hard-to-understand reasons. Of course, the public acceptability of vaping also depends on the individual and what practices they follow. People might not mind sharing a space with a vape user, but they will very much mind having lots of smoke blown into their face.
It’s becoming a subculture
On the other hand, there’s a growing subculture of people who not only welcome vaping but widely celebrate it. “Cloud chasing” is a growing hobby that involves producing not only the biggest vape clouds but also the most elaborately shaped. On the other hand, there are businesses growing on the back of the vape industry, such as vape cafes providing a public, communal space where people can expect to not have their indulgence criticised or disallowed. As with all subcultures, there are some growing pains and a general lack of understanding from outside of it. However, this small subsection of the market proves some of the most profitable to investors, providing guaranteed long-term profits.
It has support
All new products that are to be ingested are expected to get a lot of attention when they become popular enough. More than attention, they attract regulation that can put production and sales in a chokehold. Vaping has had several detractors, some with genuine health concerns that have yet to be proven, others from rival industries such as tobacco. Regulation that increases pricing and limits sales are still a serious concern, but there is legislative support as well as interest groups standing up for the consumer’s right to vape and the business person’s right to facilitate that desire. The future is still uncertain, but support is mounting behind the vaping industry and those that use its products.
The consumer, the health services, and the economy at large all benefit from vaping, so it’s no surprise that it’s risen to become the economic juggernaut that it is in the past few years. It’s only expected to continue its trajectory so long as it isn’t stopped by the lobbies fighting against it worldwide.
