At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this year I saw four or five companies offering electronic cigarettes. They were promoting them as the ‘safe’ alternative to tobacco.
I doubt the ‘safe’ claim.
While they remain a banned product here in Australia, electronic cigarettes are selling in the UK. I purchased a pack of Intellicig from a newsagency in London a few months ago.
In the pack is a cigarette, some nicotine dispensers and a charger to plug into a USB port on your laptop. Odd.
I’d dismissed what I saw in Las Vegas until I saw it on the newsagent counter in London a couple of months later. In the last week, on the back of the High Court decision on plain paper packaging, electronic cigarettes have been in the news again.
While electronic cigarettes have been around for decades, interest in them has grown as government controls over tobacco cigarettes has increased.
It will be interesting to see if regulations here change and the product reached the market.
I had a customer come in last week requesting refills for their electric cigarette so they are now here.
the problem in australia is the do gooders want them banned, the cigarette companies have had the monopoly all this time when a cheaper alternative comes out they want them banned too the goverments are ill advised about them nicoten is harmless in the e cigs the doctor deaths cigarette companies are pissing in the goverments pocket. they do work quite well, save lives and are cheap to run if you buy the right type. the goverments wont collect taxes if they are sold on open markets thats the problem
I’ve seen them for sale in an pertol station in Melbourne. I don’t think he was selling regular smokes so I suppose would avoid any Dept. of Health checks.
They are very easy to buy online anyway, and got some solid product placement by Johnny Depp in the film The Tourist.
Found them onsakle again here in Qld, seems they are not illegal if the nicotine is not in liquid form
Electronic cigarettes are not illegal in Australia as long as they don’t contain nicotine. You can legally import nicotine for personal use. We have been selling our Aussie Blue ecigs online in Australia for almost 3 years, we also have a shop-front, Mister Ecigs, at Windang, NSW and we are 100% Aussie owned and operated 🙂
Very uninformed article.
Firstly ecigs are safe compared with tobacco, and safe according to all tests that have been done, your “doubt it” comment seems very ill informed. Secondly Banned in Australia? How so are they banned, it is illegal to sell them with nicotine, in some states they can’t be sold under a law that was not meant for electronic cigarettes. The law the government hides behind is – If it looks like a cigarette but it’s not a cigarette it is illegal. This law was intended for chocolate and candy cigarettes not ecigs btw. It is only banned in 1 or 2 states under this bs law. Third would be the plain packaging, well these are not tobacco product at all and are not covered under this ruling. Fourth Electronic Cigarettes were invented in 2003 and released in Europe in 2004, so the “been around for decades” is just plain wrong. Please if you are going to sling crap at a product that actually helps people stop smoking at least get your facts right. No one has died from ecigs, no injuries except one which was caused by stupidity in USA, did I mention no harmful effects have been recorded since they were invented. How many people die from tobacco each day, month year?
Keep up the good work
Andrew, you to are slightly misinformed! They have been around for aaaaages. I remember my Dad smoking a prototype for them back in the 90’s that was never released, and they have been in Asia since as long as I can remember.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cigarette