Nicotine

Nicotine is an addictive substance that is in the tobacco plant. It is smoked legally in most, if not all countries around the world. Tobacco can be smoked in a cigar or a cigarette. It acts as a stimulant.

The World Health Organization still records that “Tobacco kills around 6 million people each year” (Who.int, 2015). This has led to an increase in the use of Electronic Cigarettes as a way to self-administer nicotine: Kevin Hughes reported for the Daily Telegraph that “sales totalled £193 million last year (up from £44 million in 2012)”. (Hughes, 2014). Farsalinos and Polosa in their 2014 paper “Safety evaluation and risk assessment of electronic cigarettes as tobacco cigarette substitutes: a systematic review” state “the powerful addictive properties of nicotine and the ritualistic behavior of smoking create a huge hurdle” but go on to say that “Electronic cigarettes are a recent development in tobacco harm reduction” (Farsalinos and Polosa, 2014).

References:

Farsalinos, K. and Polosa, R. (2014). Safety evaluation and risk assessment of electronic cigarettes as tobacco cigarette substitutes: a systematic review. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 5(2), pp.67-86.

Hughes, K. (2014). The rise of the e-cigarette. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/technology-topics/10741828/The-rise-of-the-e-cigarette.html [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015].

Who.int, (2015). WHO | Tobacco. [online] Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015].