Hon Lik is widely acknowledged as the original inventor of the e-cigarette. Here, he talks to Imperial Brands about the genesis of the vaping category, the challenges it faces, and his hopes for the future of tobacco harm reduction.*
My father smoked a packet of cigarettes a day and was diagnosed with lung cancer later in life. The doctor said smoking was the cause. I had smoked since I was 18 and knew I had to quit but I also found it very hard, even though I used nicotine patches. They helped with the nicotine cravings, but I missed the act of smoking.
So, I decided to apply my engineering and pharmacy background to design a device that delivered nicotine to the human body more like a cigarette.
This resulted in the first electronic cigarette – or e-cigarette – being launched on the Chinese market in 2004.
Pride. I believe vapes are a highly humanised product that relieve many of the withdrawal symptoms of cigarettes, letting users enjoy nicotine alongside potential lower risks. They are, of course, only for adult smokers.
Overall, I’m satisfied and gratified to witness this revolution that’s changing the lifestyle of millions of adult smokers around the world.
If you make anything ‘avant-garde’ it becomes more niche and for enthusiasts only. For the mainstream who want to reduce their cigarette consumption, or quit smoking entirely, I believe the price-quality combination and flavours are the most important factors in a vape.
It’s important, however, that consumers have choices and manufacturers need to help facilitate that. I think it’s the responsibility of the likes of Imperial Brands to ensure their products are of the highest quality and perform exactly as designed.
That’s crucial to boosting consumer confidence and driving increasing acceptance.
Maybe Australia is being overcautious as this is still considered a nascent product category. I believe if they consider the evidence from the UK, they’ll find that enabling a well-regulated vaping category will help their adult smokers to make better choices.
When we first commercialised the e-cigarette we only had two variants – tobacco and latterly tobacco-mint. I didn’t think of developing fruit flavours, but they have certainly been effective – especially as consumers have all kinds of different needs.
I personally think regulators should focus on enforcing age limits rather than banning flavours – we should all be as strict as possible on any potential adoption by vulnerable populations like youth.
Focusing on vaping, media coverage continues to be very confusing to many consumers. The public health principle of tobacco harm reduction has always been based on the relative harm of vaping compared to smoking.
However, anti-vaping activists always focus on the potential for absolute harm of vaping – i.e. vaping without having ever smoked cigarettes, which is not the point of the product. They also use extreme language, including describing nicotine as ‘poison’, which I think is incredibly misleading.
Furthermore, the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control might be well-intentioned, but in my opinion it’s ineffective and irresponsible. For instance, their current position on vapes i.e. that the products are harmful and their usage by youth leads to smoking initiation, is subjective and lacks a firm scientific basis.
Cost is another hurdle, and it will require further innovation to make future next generation products (NGP) more affordable and accessible to everyone. This will inevitably occur, in my opinion, and hopefully allow adult smokers everywhere to benefit from potential tobacco harm reduction.
I truly believe the innovation has only just started. In the 1960s, owing to scientific and technological limitations, nicotine was considered the main harmful material in tobacco. Today, it’s understood that it’s the harmful chemicals present in cigarette smoke produced via the process of tobacco combustion.
The media isn’t correcting this crucial mistake. They are also often guilty of sensationalist headlines without describing the quality of the scientific data being presented or investigating more deeply.
In the coming decades, with the help of long-term epidemiological data, I think it will be revealed that NGP like vapes are clearly harm reduced compared to combustible tobacco – hopefully creating a pathway for tens of millions more smokers to leave cigarettes behind.
*Mr Hon Lik is based in China and retained as a consultant by Imperial Brands. The views reflected in this article are his own.
