The Renormalization of Smoking? E-Cigarettes and the Tobacco Endgame

Whereas some experts welcome e-cigarettes as a pathway to reducing tobacco use, others characterize them as dangerous products that could undermine efforts to denormalize smoking. But the goal of eliminating the risks of smoking is not incompatible with e-cigarette use. Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes battery-operated nicotine-delivery devices that mimic the look and feel of smoking by vaporizing a liquid solution such as propylene glycol appeared in European and American markets less than a decade ago. Sales have reached $650 million a year in Europe and are projected to reach $1.7 billion in the United States in 2013. Though these figures are a small fraction of sales figures for traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes represent a substantial market achievement; indeed, some people predict that they may eventually eclipse tobacco cigarettes. But e-cigarettes are the subject of a public health dispute that ...