E-cigarettes were originally marketed as a smoking cessation aid. They contain fewer toxic chemicals than ordinary cigarettes, so many people see them as a safer alternative (aside from the whole lung injury thing).
There are claims circulating online that vaping might threaten COVID-19 recovery even more than smoking a regular cigarette. These days it’s hard to know what is true about anything — but especially strange and exaggerated COVID information.
While research around COVID-19 is still emerging, there’s no evidence to suggest that e-Cigarette and e-Vaporizer are more harmful than smoking in this context. Both e-Cigarette and regular cigarettes are harmful to your health — so the larger issue is determining whether one of these harmful things causes any less harm than the other?
Both e-Cigarette and regular cigarettes affect your respiratory system and have the potential to damage your lungs.
Plus, both can weaken your immune system. With this combination of effects it means that you may be more likely to experience severe symptoms if you catch COVID — and less able to fight off the virus.
One report, looking at 1,099 laboratory-confirmed cases in China, revealed that 12.4% of smokers either died, required ICU admission, or needed intubation, compared to 4.7% among never smokers.
Another study found that among Chinese patients diagnosed with Covid-19 pneumonia, the odds of disease progression (including death) were an order of magnitude higher among smokers compared to non-smokers.
The World Health Organization has noted that cigarette smokers are likely to have more serious illness if infected with Covid-19.
The FDA has advised that cigarette smoking and vaping may leave users with underlying health conditions and increase the risk of coronavirus pneumonia and increase its severity.
Global E-Cigarette and E-Vaporizer Industry Landscape
The global E-Cigarette and E-Vaporizer industry size was valued at USD 12.41 billion in 2019, to expand over USD 86.5 by the year 2025, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.10% during the forecast period.
On the basis of product type, modular e-cigarettes held the highest industry share of 56.8% in 2016due to flexibility in flavors and enhanced inhaling experience which is appreciable by the consumers. Whereas, on the other hand, the market share of rechargeable e-cigarettes was 40.90% in 2016 owing to the rising demand for the rechargeable liquids and reusable device on account of cost-saving for the consumers.
Based on geography, North America dominated the global e-cigarette and e-vaporizer Market with a market share of 41.2% in 2016 due to the easy availability of e-cigarettes in retail stores and online channels. With the increasing demand by the young population of North America is driving the e-cigarette and e-vaporizer Industry.
Despite all of the problems and health dangers — E-Cigarette and E-Vaporizer Are Still Capturing the Market As An Alternative To Conventional Cigarettes
An electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) is a battery-operated device that simulates the experience of tobacco smoking without the gulp of smoke. This device is an alternative to conventional cigarettes that emits vaporized nicotine which is inhaled by the user.
The e-cigarette and e-vaporizer Market is competing directly with the big tobacco and big pharmacy companies since 2012.
US is the world’s biggest market for e-cigarettes in 2019 with a market volume of USD 6.4 billion. As the global revenue is USD 18 billion, the US makes up for a third of it.
The UK comes in second place with a market volume of USD 3.2 billion, almost 17% of the global market share. Followed by Canada (USD 1.1 billion), France (USD 1 billion), and Germany (USD 996 million).
The global industry for e-cigarettes has been growing annually by almost 20% from USD 5.1 billion in 2012 to the global projected revenue of USD 19.3 billion for 2020. The industry will further grow by 37% to almost USD 24.2 billion in the next five years.
While recent vaping scandals in the US have sharply affected the growth of e-cigarette revenue, the growth rate was 18.1% in 2018, but only 7.3% in 2019, the future looks more stable.
Companies invest actively in R&D for continuous innovation and new product development.
For instance, in 2018, Altria Group, Inc. invested USD 252 million in R&D for the development of advanced e-cigarette and E-vaporizer.
With the increasing number of brands and the market players are escalating the competition with advanced product launches, enhancing the quality and customization in the products.
Due to growing health awareness and environmental-friendly usage, the market for global e-cigarette and e-vaporizer is growing.
Image Credit: Thorn Yang; Pexels
