To Vape or Not to Vape?

The title of this post is a question I'd like to pose to Big O Coffee News readers. The electronic cigarette has burgeoned into a $1.7 billion a year business and is gaining traction fast. An industry insider has even said that projections show 2014 will bring another 4.5 million users of these devices.

There are plenty of positives associated with smoking e-cigarettes, known as "Vaping." Eliminating dozens of known cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco cigarettes is possibly the biggest plus. However, replacing the smoking habit with a nicotine habit minus the tobacco has other benefits. Tobacco smoking means inhaling flaming-hot particulates into the lungs, and vaping removes those as well.

On the flip side, there have been no long term studies done on vaping, which lets the user inhale nicotine-laced water vapor instead of tobacco smoke. There could be some health risks associated with that, even if those health risks pale in comparison to tobacco smoking.

Other concerns with vaping involve unintended consequences. Will vaping become a fad and get new people addicted to nicotine that weren't previous smokers? Is it more palatable for non-smokers to start vaping because its supposedly safer? What about the second-hand effects of the vapor? Will the unregulated nature of this industry get kids to start vaping, and then somking?

I, for one, don't believe that vaping will lead to smoking. Rather, I think vaping will switch millions of current smokers to a less unhealthy alternative and promote vastly more folks quitting tobacco than starting a new nicotine habit.

What do you, the readers, think?