Throughout the decades, nicotine replacement therapy has been introduced as an alternative to the community of smokers who don’t wish to cease the addictive habit completely. For the majority of history, such therapy has appeared in the form of gum, nasal spray, inhalers, lozenges, and patches.
However, the most powerful alternative has proven to come in the form of the electronic cigarette. Despite the fact that the technology behind the design of such products was first introduced in a patent created by Herbert A. Gilbert in 1963, this manifestation of nicotine replacement therapy did not appear in international markets until it was manufactured by Chinese pharmacist and inventor Hon Lik in 2003.
Furthermore, it did not explode in popularity until the year 2007 when the first cartomizer was designed by a pair of British entrepreneurs known as Tariq and Umer Sheikh.
Commonly referred to in the modern-day as nicotine vaporizers, or “vapes”, these devices come in millions of different combinations and customizations despite all adhering to the original design contained within Gilbert’s 1963 patent.
Background
Granted in 1965, the classification of the product was first described as “a smokeless nontobacco cigarette that involved the replacement of burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavored air”. Initially, the devices produced a steady flow of heated, flavored steam without the presence of nicotine.
Later, the devices would contain ingredients and flavors that combined multiple chemicals including but not limited to vegetable glycerin and nicotine to remove the possibility of substance withdrawal and maintain the addiction without the immense amount of health detriments.
While tobacco cigarettes contain ash and thousands of toxic carcinogens, the primary chemical that is still contained in modern vapes is nicotine. In doing so, the vast majority of the threats to the body including but not limited to emphysema, cancer, and asthma among many others are almost entirely eliminated.
The successor to Gilbert’s patent was initiated by Lik in 2001 as a natural evolution of the original product’s design.
After quitting his own ritualistic behavior of tobacco smoking once his father, a fellow smoker, passed away from lung cancer, Lik designed the concept of utilizing a high frequency, ultrasound-emitting and piezoelectric element to allow a pressurized stream of liquid containing nicotine to create a cloud of vapor nearly identical in observation to real smoke.
Despite its identical appearance, the vapor was not classified as secondhand smoke due to the fact that the main ingredient contained within was water. Upon first entering the international market, many users claimed to be dissatisfied with the overall performance of the products due to their primitive design.
Evolution
In response, the vaping community introduced powerful new solutions to the products to improve their throughput, such as the aforementioned cartomizer which integrated the liquid chamber and the heating coil together.
Other users further customized the technology and soon developed their own homemade designs which gave birth to the concept of modding (modifications). Eventually, as the knowledge of the form of replacement therapy grew in scope, so too did the number of customers.
These customers would soon place such a high demand on customizable devices that several manufacturers were prompted to produce devices complete with interchangeable parts that could be handpicked by the respective user.
Through the exponential growth of technology and ongoing developments in the now-established vaping industry, the market worth has evolved to a staggering $8 billion across the globe in less than 10 years.
As such, these products have become critical components to be included in brand lines for tobacco corporations including but not limited to Reynolds American Inc. and Altria Group Inc. who, like many others, continue to face a decline in the consumption of the traditional cigarette.
Smoking vs. Vaping
Given the manner in which such products function, nicotine vaporizers have clearly proven to be a superior and healthier alternative to tobacco products. According to information compiled by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the traditional behavior of smoking cigarettes causes immediate and direct harm to nearly every single organ within the human body.
Despite the fact that the lungs suffer the majority of the physical damage due to the fact that a single inhale from a cigarette contains well over 4,000 poisonous chemicals including just under 70 different carcinogens responsible for cancer cell mutation.
Nearly 20 percent of all reported deaths in the United States are entirely smoking-related; as the traditional cigarette takes the lives of over 440,000 Americans on an annual basis. These deaths even include premature babies who passed away due to abominable prenatal maternal smoking along with nonsmokers suffering from the inhalation of secondhand carcinogens.
Given these statistics, “over 10 times more people have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars in American history combined”. Furthermore, the act of smoking has been estimated to increase the risks of both stroke and coronary artery disease (heart failure) by a factor of 4.
Subsequently, the increase to the risk of developing lung cancer is increased by a factor of 25. Without such threats to the body due to an entirely nicotine-based product despite allowing the same visible form of behavior, vaporizers have proven the best alternative to complete cessation.
Pure Nicotine
The primary ingredients contained within the majority of the liquid found inside of vapes are propylene glycol, nicotine, flavoring, and vegetable glycerin. Although vegetable glycerin is a natural oil whose derivative includes healthy foods such as corn and propylene glycol is an additive commonly used in everyday food, the nicotine found within the liquid is identical in nature to that encased in the traditional cigarette.
As such, it derives from the tobacco plants and is responsible for the same development of addiction that those who consume vapes discover. However, the presence of nicotine within the vapes is precisely what allows former smokers to so easily transition between the two types of products.
On its own, nicotine has proven to be far less harmful than when typically included with the aforementioned tobacco and carcinogens. Consequently, the American Lung Association has issued multiple public statements that claim that these forms of nicotine replacement therapy successfully alleviate symptoms associated with substance withdrawal in the majority of cases.
Fortunately, the liquids are manufactured at various levels; from as high as 50mg to as low as 0mg of nicotine. Studies have proven that after a single year of quitting tobacco smoking, the risk of a heart attack drops remarkably.
Within a maximum period of 5 years, the risks associated with stroke drop to that of someone who has never consumed a traditional cigarette. Furthermore, in the same time frame, any risks associated with cancer of the mouth, esophagus, bladder, or throat drop by 50 percent. Finally, after 10 years of cessation, the risk of lung cancer reduces by 50 percent.
In an attempt to shatter the developing industry that is growing at record rates, many tobacco companies and special interest groups with ties to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have presented a number of claims against vaping; stating that they are still just as dangerous as traditional cigarettes.
These claims are based on the lack of established, authentic, and scholarly scientific research. Unfortunately, however, many of their complaints are outright myths that have been subsequently debunked by a number of reputable manufacturers around the world including but not limited to Aspen Valley Vapes.
One complaint includes the notion that the chemicals contained within the liquids are dangerous and customers are not provided the information necessary to truly know what is entering their bodies upon inhalation. As previously stated, all liquids contain only 4 ingredients, and absolutely do not contain antifreeze despite the fact propylene glycerol is used for such chemicals.
Be careful of those dry-hits
An additional myth related to claims that machine simulations for vaping at high temperatures are so dangerous that they caused a condition known as “dry-hit”.
In reality, dry hits are common events that take place when a person consuming a nicotine vaporizer reaches a low threshold of liquid in their tank. Perhaps the most famous myth surrounding vapes includes the foolish notion that pure nicotine is responsible for the mutation of cells in the body which ultimately cause cancer. Even worse, this myth existed well before the introduction of electronic cigarettes. Due to the fact that nicotine is not classified in any way as a carcinogen, the ability for it to cause cancer is as improbable as the consumption of caffeine.
Thousands of special interest groups have claimed that nicotine vaporizers are marketed towards nonsmokers in addition to existing smokers. Simply put, all electronic cigarettes were created and established solely as tools to help smokers quit their dangerous habits.
Electronic cigarettes are marketed only to nonsmokers; not young teens or technology hobbyists. Studies conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have debunked this myth completely. In one study, a test group of adults that had never smoked a tobacco cigarette found that just over 3 percent had tried utilizing vaporizers. The highest rate of people in a similar, far younger age group (18–24-year-olds) was still less than 10 percent.
Given the fact that secondhand smoke is almost identical to in danger to those who inhale it through a traditional cigarette, claims that secondhand vapor inhalation is just as dangerous as inhaling it through an electronic device became an unfortunate inevitability.
Ironically enough, the study that debunked such a myth was published by an existing tobacco corporation known as the Lolliard Tobacco Company. Their analysis was performed through a comparison of the carcinogen levels found between the two types of “smoke”. Unlike secondhand smoke, secondhand vapor produced the same amount of carcinogens as found in the oxygen that is breathed in the air.
To further shatter the myth, the National Center for Biotechnology Information conducted a similar study which also “concluded that there is no apparent risk to human health from e-cig vapor based on the compounds analyzed”.
A growing industry
Many international corporations whose product lines primarily consist of tobacco cigarettes dismissed the vape industry as a fad initially. However, upon recognition of the development of a steadily growing market sector that could one day render the concept of the traditional cigarette obsolete, they soon started producing and marketing their own nicotine vaporizer brands and acquire many existing companies who already crafted them.
For instance, the prominent American manufacturer known as blu eCigs was first acquired by the aforementioned Lolliard in the year 2012. Several years later, it was sold to the Imperial Tobacco corporation as part of a historic landmark $7.1 billion deal.