Unless you live in “Marlborough Country” you can’t be missing the current trend in the cigarette industry. The new “it” is the electronic cigarette. They are also called e-cigarettes.
I have written a series of blogs on the growth in this industry so if you care to learn more about e-cigs feel free to go back through the archives and read those blogs. In one sentence – they are electronic devices that allow a user to inhale nicotine as a vapor.
Proponents say they are much safer than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. Opponents say there is not enough research to determine how “safe” e-cigarettes are, nor do they condone any device that involves an addictive substance.
Because they emit water vapor, e-cigarette users have bypassed no smoking bans everywhere from restaurants to ball parks and even to airplanes. It may be “hammer time.” Like all other addictive substances, regulations of the use and the manufacture are right around the corner. Where better to start than the “Big Apple?”
Maybe it was the thumping music, the alcohol or the beating sun, or some hallucinatory combination, but for a moment in early July, it appeared as if a waterfront state park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had turned into a smoker’s paradise. Bikini-topped women and sweaty guys in muscle tees were puffing away as they danced at a techno party hosted by Verboten, a roving nightclub. The surgeon general might have had a stroke.
Intrigued? I bet you are. If so, we will continue this topic tomorrow.