Bucking the trend of declining tobacco sales, e-cigarette sales in Ireland grew by 478% last year, generating €7.3m.
Like most trends, regulation is usually three steps behind the phenomenon.
With sales of e-cigarettes skyrocketing and the EU pushing to curb their use, the debate on controls and restrictions is only beginning in Ireland.
Depending on who you talk to, e-cigarettes offer the greatest hope of eliminating or drastically reducing harmful smoking or they are a new way for tobacco companies to regain their slipping hold in the tobacco market.
E-cigarettes are battery powered and operate using a cartridge filled with nicotine, which has been dissolved in a propylene glycol or vegetable glycerol and water. They emit a vapour which is free of the harmful substances such as tar and, as a result, they are viewed by many as a less harmful substitute to the traditional cigarette.
However, as they are not technically cigarettes, they are, to date, largely free from the strict regulatory controls governing the sale of cigarettes — although this looks set to change sooner rather than later.
What can’t be ignored is their popularity. Although they have been on the market for over a decade, sales figures in the last year have increased enormously and have regulators and the tobacco firms watching closely.
The fact is, e-cigarettes are bucking the trend; tobacco sales in Europe fell by 6% last year.
According to data released by the Nielsen Total Scantrack for Ireland, overall tobacco sales generated almost €1.2bn last year — a huge sum but still a 1.2% decline on the 2012 figure. Sales of cigarettes fell by just under 4%, while the sale of loose tobacco grew by 28%.
However, against this decline, the sale of e-cigarettes here skyrocketed by 478% last year — generating some €7.3m in revenue.
This is before you include online sales which Nielsen said it was unable to track, but conceded were “huge”.
The problem is, there is no consensus on whether the e-cigarette is something to be welcomed or banned. The jury is out on whether they make any real impact in reducing smoking, with various studies offering contradictory views.
Source: Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner, 18/03/14
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