Vape Technology Is Driving Change

The technology underpinning vaping products is constantly improving the way devices operate, the satisfaction they deliver, and helping to get smokers to quit successfully. With an eye to the future, manufacturers are now focussing on green issues and experts believe that vaping will be on the right side of history when books are written about it.

Technology is driving the harm reduction potential of vaping and improving customer satisfaction, according to a keynote speech delivered last week by Echo Liu, European Division Director at Feelm. Feelm is the atomisation technology platform belonging to leading vape manufacturer Smoore.
 
Liu said that their technological advances had solved issues relating to inconsistent flavour and dry burning, “taking the vaping experience to the next level as our harm reduction outperforms mainstream disposable products by 46 per cent”.

Feelm says the next step for the industry is to address sustainability and Liu said: “Our aim is to improve recyclability while developing biodegradable products which can decompose naturally.”
 
With advances still being made to make vapes safer, greener, and better performing, barriers still stand in the way which act to prevent smokers from switching.
 
The Association of Directors of Public Health North East has made a plea to the government to increase the accessibility to vape products. It notes that “vaping is a far less risky option” and therefore has to be affordable and accessible to tobacco users who might want to switch and reduce their harm exposure.

Despite a commendable stance on vaping, many are calling on the Government to go further. To date we still don’t have a vape product that doctors can prescribe in the same way they can for traditional Nicotine Replacement Products.
 
Then there is the issue of misconceptions about vaping held by current smokers.

In a blog on the Oxford University website, the author traces current problems back to a lung condition in America named ‘e-cigarettes or vaping use-associated lung injury’ – commonly referred to as EVALI.
 
“We now know that EVALI is not caused by regulated, commercial nicotine e-cigarettes. Rather, the condition has been linked to products sold as THC-containing e-liquids. Because THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) is expensive, some sellers were cutting their products with vitamin E acetate to make the e-liquid look like it contained more THC than it did. Although vitamin E acetate is an ingredient in some foods and skincare products, it’s harmful when inhaled,” it says. “Once the risk from vitamin E acetate was identified, cases of EVALI declined steeply. But this hasn’t changed many people’s perception of e-cigarettes, with many still concerned about their safety.”

With many UK smokers still believing that vaping is as dangerous or more dangerous than smoking, many hope the Government will heed the Association of Directors of Public Health’s call to act on misinformation.
 
Ultimately, as detailed in a report produced by The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction, safer nicotine products such as e-cigs will be seen to have been “on the right side of history”.
 
“Technology helped smoking become one of the world’s biggest health problems. Now, technological innovations from beyond both the tobacco industry and public health have combined to produce safer nicotine products, and millions of people who smoked have already chosen to switch,” said author Harry Shapiro.