Vapor Digest #3 The Trade Publication For The Vapor Products Industry
Issue link: http://vapordigest.epubxp.com/i/504729
"Vape" Is Word Of The Year For 2014 Move over selfie and GIF, the new buzzword is "vape". It's a verb, meaning to inhale and exhale vapor from an electronic cigarette, or a noun for said device. But of course, you already knew that. The use of the word "vape" has apparently more than doubled in 2014 compared to 2013, and it was Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2014. It's no surprise really, as the sales of electronic cigarettes have grown over the last five years from almost nothing to a multi-million pound industry. But the word vape arose when people realised they needed to somehow distinguish between smoking cigarettes and smoking e-Cigarettes. Vape isn't actually in the OED yet, it's currently being considered. The word actually dates to the early 1980s, when it was used in an article, "Why do People Smoke" in New Society in 1983. The author, Rob Stepney, was describing a hypothetical device at the time. Judy Pearsall, Editorial Director for Oxford Dictionaries, said: "As vaping has gone mainstream, with celebrities from Lindsay Lohan to Barry Manilow giving it a go, and with growing public debate on the public dangers and the need for regulation, so the language usage of the word 'vape' and related terms in 2014 has shown a marked increase." Source: irishexaminer.com Vaping Gets Green Light in Some Offices Forget a foosball table. Vaping at your desk is the new workplace benefit of choice. Just eight years after their introduction in the U.S., e-cigarette devices have expanded to a nearly $2 billion industry. Last week, the FDA took the first steps to extend its authority from traditional tobacco products to the new devices. Meanwhile, employees are using e-cigarettes and, in the absence of firm federal guidelines, some managers are making their own determinations about whether to allow them in the office. Cheryl Dooley, CEO of the Ebsco Spring Company in Tulsa, Okla- homa, bought her 28 smoking employees $100 vaping devices and allows them to be used in the company building. She did it after switching to a nicotine vaporizer helped her kick a 40-year, one- to two-pack a day habit that led to a blood clot forming in her lung. "Every smoker wants to quit," she said, and if she could switch from traditional cigarettes to ones that use a battery-powered atomizer to steam liquid nicotine into an inhalable gas, she wanted her employees to benefit, too. "They're like family to me." She's also seen an uptick in productivity. "Nobody's sneaking out," she said. "The office people are always at their desk." The previously high-traffic "Smoke Hole," a covered picnic bench area set aside as a designated smoking area, is largely empty. No wonder that some employers, mainly small business owners, are letting their workers fire up e-cigarettes inside the office. Its novelty means numbers are hazy, said Greg Conley, a board member of the American Vaping Association, which receives funding from both e-cigarette companies and donations. "Nationwide, it's a don't ask, don't tell kind of thing," said Conley. Ten states and 172 cities and counties have enacted laws restricting or prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in certain workplace venues. While there is limited data, and the water vapor of e-cigarettes is viewed by users as less harmful than traditional smoking, a 2013 study published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health found vaping did worsen air quality. Other studies have also found trace amounts of ultrafine pollutants in the vapor of e-cigarettes. At most large-scale companies, the use of e-cigarettes is banned in the workplace under their existing tobacco policies. Most Americans say they're against vaping in the office. Sixty-five percent of respondents in a 2014 Harris Interactive survey of 1,011 adults, com- missioned by electronic ciga- rette maker Mistic, said they dis- approved. But some managers will let it slide as long as there are no complaints. Source: nbcnews.com VAPOR DIGEST NEWSWIRE 37