The Nicotine Fix For E-Cigarettes

Abstract

Electronic cigarettes are shaking up the tobacco industry in the U.S. and around the world. Consumption of e-cigarettes is soaring as traditional smoking declines. On the defensive, big tobacco firms such as Philip Morris and Reynolds American are entering the e-cig business. Cigarettes are tobacco leaves wrapped in paper. E-cigarettes are essentially chemicals wrapped in plastic. But the products have two things in common: They are both vehicles for delivering nicotine, and they both get it from tobacco. For e-cigarette makers, the source of that nicotine and the purity in which it arrives are matters of increasing importance as their business matures from the unregulated free-for-all it is today. Consequently, a growing number of companies—including the first producer in the U.S.—are jostling to become the emerging industry’s nicotine supplier of choice. Traditional cigarettes deliver nicotine to the lungs when tobacco, which is up to 3% nicotine, is burned and the ...