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OUKNOW?Smokers around the world buy roughly 18 billion cigarettes every day

WHYVAPINGCOULDBEJUSTASBADFORYOUR

HEALTHASCIGARETTESMOKING

WordsbyScottDutfield

VA PING

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nvented as a way to curb the craving of cigarettes, vaping has quickly

become the trend as a smoking alternative and a completely new vice.

Creeping into the commercial market in the early 2000s, the first

e-cigarettes were invented by Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik after his father,

a heav y smoker, died from lung cancer. Marketed as a way to ditch the bad

habit of smoking and a ‘healthier’ way to get a nicotine hit, the number of

vapers has shot up to a whopping 41 million people globally in 2018, with

researchers predicting a further climb to 55 million by 2021.

O

ften believed to be a modern-day vice, smoking and chewing

tobacco leaves have been habits humans have had for thousands

of years. It wasn’t until the early 1500s that tobacco cultivation

reached Europe, after Christopher Columbus discovered Native

Americans smoking dried tobacco leaves. By the 1700s smoking became

widespread, resulting in the rise of the tobacco industr y. Although it’s

been on a steady decline in recent years, in 2018 it was found that around

7.2 million people aged 18 and over smoked in the UK alone.