E- Cigarettes – A Chinese Innovation  Takes  the Market by Storm

E-cigarettes are electronics cigarettes where a heating element vaporizes a filled-in liquid to produce smoke. The filled-in liquid consists of polypylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine and flavours. They also make nicotine-free cigarettes. The vapors emitted out are in fact on aerosol mist. They are considered safe, but may contain heavy metals and toxic compounds like tin and zinc. These may be traces of nickel and chromium. Malfunctioning cigarettes may have silicon fibres. There could be explosions too, when they are over-heated.

Most e-cigarettes are manufactured in China and that too by a company Skorite Electronics. E-cigarettes are popular amongst the youngsters. There are many factories in Shenzhen region of China. Some of these units have QC measures whereas many do not. Chinese companies are the first to develop e-cigarettes.

There is no regulatory framework as yet. An e-cigarette has components such as tube-casings, ICs, heating coils and lithium-ion batteries.

Han Li, a Chinese pharmacist, pioneered, the concept of e-cigarettes in 2004. He sold the product through his company. Others soon followed. By 2009, e-cigarettes became more popular in Europe and the USA. Global tobacco giants too have entered the e-cigarette market and they too manufacture in China.MarkTen is a famous Altria-Philip Morris brand.

The first generation cigarettes are just like tobacco cigarettes and are called ‘cigalikes’. Second generation devices are larger and have USB charger. The third generation cigarettes are box-like unit holding multiple and larger batteries. The battery unit called mod is removable. Most portable devices contain a rechargeable battery. The e-liquid is called ‘juice’.