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With the implementation of the Tobacco Products Directive just two months ago, 2017 heralds a new era for vaping. Changes to packaging, tank capacity and e-liquid bottle volume, have diminished the diversity of products available to vapers and many small businesses have been forced to close as a result.
There are, however, a number of reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the future of vaping – after all, you can still get your hands on the best vape pen uk with just a few clicks.
Increasingly positive media coverage – hopefully
Rather predictably, media coverage of vaping tends to rely on sensationalism. When a single scientific study discovered the presence of diacetyl in 75% of flavoured e-cigarettes, there was an explosion of negative coverage.
Whilst diacetyl has been linked with a rare, irreversible lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans (or popcorn lung) it has been found to exist in a quantity 750 times lower in vapes than in cigarettes. A significant enough difference, to, at the very least, raise concerns about the authenticity of the claims made about the extent of the risk posed by diacetyl in e-cigarettes. You can understand then, why vapers are sceptical of some of the media coverage.
It is not the first negative vaping article, and it more than likely will not be the last. But there are hopes that as research continues to progress, vaping will be all but exonerated of any health-related crimes, and with a bit of luck, we will be able to look forward to a future where disingenuous and damaging headlines (like ‘e-cigarettes are no safer than smoking tobacco’) are a thing of the past.
Cloud chasing is on the rise
In a world where the competitive gaming industry encroaches on the $1 billion mark, it makes sense that ‘cloud chasing’ is gathering more and more momentum as a sporting pursuit. Stripped down, cloud chasing is essentially blowing large clouds of vapour using an e-cigarette. As simple as that sounds, vapers have come up with an abundance of ways to make this simple inhalation and exhalation of vapour interesting – just ask the millions of people who have watched them on social media. From the jellyfish to the dragon, increasingly elaborate vape tricks accomplished by cloud-chasers are drawing increasingly large audiences (or cloud-gazers). And with demand, comes money – the World Vaping Championship has a total purse of $100,000.
Computer hacking
Are we about to see vapes become the latest weapon in the hacker’s arsenal? In short, probably not. But there are increasing concerns that e-cigarettes can be used to transmit malware, especially in light of the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled the NHS just two months ago. Where this theory comes unstuck though, is the limited space on vapes. The WannaCry attack for example, occupied 4-5 MB of space, many hundreds of times more than what is available on an e-cigarette.
Diversity of products set to decline
While most of the other predictions we’ve made are more speculative, the one thing we can be certain of is that the range of products available to vapers is set to decline. The Tobacco Products Directive has stamped out e-liquids with a nicotine content of over 20mg, as well as refillable tanks with capacities larger than 2ml. This is more likely to target vapers trying to kick a heavy smoking habit which is counter-productive, but, once again, we are optimistic that the Tobacco Products Directive is just another hurdle that the vaping industry is more than capable of overcoming.