E-cigarettes on the rise
To many contemporary witnesses, it was only a matter of time that in the digital world of e-mail and e-smog, smoking would no longer be limited to the analogue method. The technical requirements for nicotine consumption without a smoking cigarette have so far been a deterrent, but the new methods dash all expectations to the wind. The bulky phallic device belongs to history. Not even prostitutes would have thought of putting such a thing in their mouths in public.
Thanks to microminiaturisation, it is finally possible to concentrate the toxins even better without people in the vicinity noticing. This may sound like magic or at least nicotine patches, but it is much more sophisticated. Nowadays, it's no longer like back then with the e-maille, simply burning sand and making vases out of it; in the 21st century, value is placed on sophisticated or at least unnecessarily complicated technology, the main thing is that the devices are small - see smartphones.
Unlike the fully integrated pocket calculators with telephone antennas that radiate invisibly, the shortcoming of the e-cigarette's stick electric was that the vapour served as an unmistakable feature: here is an environmentally conscious smoker who wants to poison himself but is considerate of his fellow human beings. In times of Corona, however, that is no longer enough. Who wants to suck on a glow stick when no one can see the drug addiction. Then you could put a lollipop in your mouth like Kojak in the 70s, back then no one had in mind that the sugar dissolved in the mouth could attack the tooth enamel, that it could be contagious or even that it could be a substitute satisfaction for nicotine addiction.
Ever since it was stipulated that the time you spend smoking does not count as working time (someone tell that to the workers who spend all day dragging the squared timbers around the construction site with a cigarette stick in their mouths), the industry has been looking for a solution for a long time. It was inspired by the guidelines 'for civil servants on the consumption of alcohol in the workrooms': if you lean far enough out of the window, it no longer takes place indoors - and if you shake afterwards or contort your face in disgust, it is not a pleasure.
Thus, e-cigarette cases that looked more like dildos gradually evolved into ever narrower and smaller vaporisers, and today the electric cigarettes present themselves in ornate lacquered pens that could also pass for eyeliner. So the upscale lady at work looks as if she is thoughtfully nibbling on her make-up utensil and no longer has to sign out for a break to smoke. The gentleman in management, on the other hand, uses the business version disguised as a red pencil: here the boss is making an effort to save jobs.
But the win-win situation goes even further. Since the liquids contain only a fraction of the substances that are burnt and inhaled quasi accidentally in conventional cigarettes - there are about 3,000, but only about 100 of them have been proven to be carcinogenic - the manufacturing industry therefore restricts itself to using only the most important and highly toxic substances in the smoke substitute to satisfy the addiction of its customers. Those who have not yet started smoking simply have to do so now.