It is estimated that 1.5 million people in the UK use e-cigarettes and, from what I can tell, there are currently two types of people who use e-cigarettes: people who have been smoking for most of their life, who have now realised that it is damaging their health and that smoking is a huge waste of money, so they have converted to e-cigarettes in an effort to quit altogether. And then there are young people from early teens up to late twenties who want to look cool without slowly killing themselves… so they have bought e-cigarettes.
The tobacco industry have spotted this market of young people so over the past couple of years more and more wealthy cigarette corporations have been adding e-cigarettes to their line of products. It is debatable whether they are just filling a gap in the market for e-cigarettes or if they are producing the fake fags as a stepping stone for young people in hope they will get hooked on real cigarettes.
However, in the past week, the UK government has threatened to reduce the teenage market significantly by proposing to ban under-18s from buying e-cigarettes. I think this is great news because it means that less young people are more likely to start smoking anything - whether it be harmful or not.
Facts about e-cigarettes:
The industry is worth around £24 million a year.
E-cigarettes get more popular every year (especially around 'Stoptober').
11% of smokers also use e-cigarettes.
567 young people start smoking every day (regular cigarettes).
Above: E-cigarettes at the Consumer Electronics Show last month.